- FinTech giant SoFi announced plans to re-enter cryptocurrency investing by the end of the year, following new regulatory guidance that explicitly permits banks to engage in crypto activities.
- CEO Anthony Noto plans to expand beyond basic investing to integrate blockchain across multiple product lines, including crypto-backed loans and payment services.
- Three under-the-radar projects are perfectly positioned to explode in value as the best crypto to buy while institutional money floods into digital assets.
The crypto market received a massive institutional boost this week as SoFi announced plans to return to cryptocurrency investing by year-end. CEO Anthony Noto cited a “fundamental shift” in regulation under the Trump administration that enables the fintech bank to pursue a more aggressive crypto strategy.
“We’re going to re-enter the crypto business, which we had to exit,” Noto told CNBC. “We want to actually make a bigger, more comprehensive push into cryptocurrency, to include providing crypto or blockchain capabilities in each product area that we have.”
SoFi CEO Anthony Noto calls for regulatory reform as the fintech company looks to add new products, including crypto offerings
SoFi CEO Anthony Noto calls for regulatory reform as the fintech company looks to add new products, including crypto offerings https://t.co/cGEP5GkhLH pic.twitter.com/eihEi9Mvvf
— Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) April 29, 2025
SoFi was forced to abandon crypto in late 2023 as a condition of obtaining its bank charter. Federal regulators were clamping down on FinTech involvement in crypto at the time but have since changed their tune.
In a monumental U-turn, recent guidance from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has cleared the way for regulated banks to engage in crypto activities without prior approval, opening doors for SoFi and other financial institutions.
Acting Comptroller of the Currency Rodney E. Hood stated, “Today’s action will reduce the burden on banks to engage in crypto-related activities and ensure that these bank activities are treated consistently by the OCC, regardless of the underlying technology.”
The OCC has confirmed certain crypto-related activities are legally permissible and expects banks conducting these activities do so with appropriate risk management processes in place. https://t.co/ifOdvjzEYJ pic.twitter.com/9hw3IyXMz3
— OCC (@USOCC) April 22, 2025
The fintech floodgates are opening
SoFi isn’t just another company dabbling in crypto. It’s bringing over 10 million customers to the party, many of whom have never owned digital assets before.
This isn’t just about buying and selling coins either. Noto specifically mentioned crypto-backed loans and payments integration—exactly the kind of real-world utility crypto has been promising for years.
And this is just the tip of the spear, with Bank of America and Morgan Stanley planning stablecoins and crypto products if regulators allow it. Meanwhile, according to Yahoo Finance, crypto companies like Circle and Coinbase are pursuing banking licenses. The lines between traditional finance and crypto are vanishing.
For investors with their ear to the ground, this isn’t just about waiting to buy Bitcoin through your bank app. The serious money will be made in projects that are building the rails these banks will need to run on, and most people haven’t even heard of them yet.
As big banks and crypto finally join forces, these three projects look like the best crypto to buy before fresh institutional money changes the market forever:
Bitcoin Pepe: Where Bitcoin meets meme coin mania
With a $2 trillion market valuation, Bitcoin towers over every other cryptocurrency, but its network speed has kept it locked out of the fastest-growing sector—meme coins. Bitcoin Pepe changes everything.
The project’s PEP-20 token standard does what many thought impossible, bringing Solana-like transaction speeds to the Bitcoin network. This finally lets Bitcoin participate in the high-frequency trading that meme coins thrive on.
Traders are calling it “Solana on Bitcoin” because it combines Bitcoin’s rock-solid security with the speed needed to quickly enter and exit positions. The result? A direct bridge between institutional Bitcoin capital and the retail-driven meme explosion.
🐸🚨OVER $7,300,000 RAISED ⚡️🔥
The World’s Only Bitcoin Layer2 Meme ICO!💥
Locked in, it’s PEP-20 season.
BUY NOW ➡️ https://t.co/xokc18tuqo pic.twitter.com/xuGzn5Cs7N
— Bitcoin Pepe (@BitcoinPepe_) April 29, 2025
BPEP has smashed through the $7 million mark at $0.031 in stage 9 of the presale, giving investors early access to infrastructure that’s perfectly positioned as banks re-enter the crypto space. With platforms such as SoFi and others introducing millions of new users to digital assets, Bitcoin Pepe is poised for significant financial and viral growth.
CartelFi: Make your memes work for you
CartelFi solves crypto’s most frustrating problem—billions in meme coins sit completely useless between pumps. Instead of watching your coins collect digital dust, CartelFi turns them into money-making machines without forcing you to sell.
The genius is in the platform’s specialized meme liquidity pools. Drop your favorite viral tokens in and instantly start earning serious yields while keeping 100% exposure to price action. When your meme moons, you win twice—on the price jump and the yield you’ve been stacking.
Meanwhile, up to 50% of all fees go toward buying and burning CARTFI tokens, creating relentless buying pressure. More users mean more fees, which fuel more burns, potentially pushing the token’s value higher as supply shrinks.
At $0.0408, CARTFI is an absolute bargain for anyone who gets what’s happening here. While banks such as SoFi are rushing to offer cryptocurrency financial services, CartelFi has already established a robust yield machine for the most volatile sector of the cryptocurrency market. This coin isn’t just the best crypto to buy—it’s the one that makes your other crypto work for you.
PepeX: Wall Street’s crypto replacement
PepeX breaks through barriers between innovation and capital. In the old world, you’d need connections, pitch decks, and endless meetings to launch anything. PepeX lets anyone mint a token and go live in minutes, while its AI marketing engine handles growth automatically.
This platform is basically a new-gen NASDAQ. Every wallet transforms into a potential venture fund, allowing every idea to receive fair market validation without the need for gatekeepers to decide who deserves funding.
The 5/95 token model is where things get interesting—project creators receive just 5% of the tokens, while 95% goes to the community. This approach obliterates the insider dumps that have burned so many investors and forces teams to actually deliver rather than cash out early.
Currently sitting at $0.0255 after raising $1.7m, PEPX is your chance to own the rails for crypto’s innovation engine, just as banking money floods in looking for the next big thing.
The smart money isn’t waiting for the banks to catch up
The walls are coming down fast. Banks want in on crypto, crypto firms are becoming banks, and regulators are finally stepping back to let it happen.
While most investors will simply buy Bitcoin and walk away, the real money will be made in the projects building critical infrastructure for this convergence. Bitcoin Pepe connects the untouchable king with the explosive meme economy. CartelFi brings serious yield to previously useless assets. PepeX democratizes innovation at exactly the moment when new money needs new ideas.
If SoFi’s move tells us anything, it’s that the institutional dam has broken. The smart play isn’t just buying what they’re buying—it’s owning the tools they’ll desperately need when billions more flood into this market looking for the best crypto to buy in this new financial reality.
