diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 5119d2ae6..1bd04e719 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -2747,9 +2747,9 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "miden-crypto"
-version = "0.19.6"
+version = "0.19.8"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "999926d48cf0929a39e06ce22299084f11d307ca9e765801eb56bf192b07054b"
+checksum = "be59336a868de7c379eace9450563c2d7f4a0b7ab936835ec5a340dcd8d9a5ed"
 dependencies = [
  "blake3",
  "cc",
@@ -3196,7 +3196,6 @@ dependencies = [
  "build-rs",
  "diesel",
  "diesel_migrations",
- "k256",
  "miden-node-db",
  "miden-node-proto",
  "miden-node-proto-build",
diff --git a/crates/validator/Cargo.toml b/crates/validator/Cargo.toml
index 9acd553c6..84ed6b248 100644
--- a/crates/validator/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/validator/Cargo.toml
@@ -22,7 +22,6 @@ aws-config             = { version = "1.8.14" }
 aws-sdk-kms            = { version = "1.100" }
 diesel                 = { workspace = true }
 diesel_migrations      = { workspace = true }
-k256                   = "0.13.4"
 miden-node-db          = { workspace = true }
 miden-node-proto       = { workspace = true }
 miden-node-proto-build = { features = ["internal"], workspace = true }
diff --git a/crates/validator/src/signers/kms.rs b/crates/validator/src/signers/kms.rs
index 1d52d4e24..01bfb9744 100644
--- a/crates/validator/src/signers/kms.rs
+++ b/crates/validator/src/signers/kms.rs
@@ -1,15 +1,11 @@
-use anyhow::Context;
 use aws_sdk_kms::error::SdkError;
 use aws_sdk_kms::operation::sign::SignError;
 use aws_sdk_kms::types::SigningAlgorithmSpec;
-use k256::PublicKey as K256PublicKey;
-use k256::elliptic_curve::sec1::ToEncodedPoint;
-use k256::pkcs8::DecodePublicKey as _;
 use miden_node_utils::signer::BlockSigner;
 use miden_protocol::block::BlockHeader;
 use miden_protocol::crypto::dsa::ecdsa_k256_keccak::{PublicKey, Signature};
 use miden_protocol::crypto::hash::keccak::Keccak256;
-use miden_tx::utils::{Deserializable, DeserializationError, Serializable};
+use miden_tx::utils::{DeserializationError, Serializable};
 
 // KMS SIGNER ERROR
 // ================================================================================================
@@ -23,9 +19,6 @@ pub enum KmsSignerError {
     #[error("KMS request returned an empty result")]
     EmptyBlob,
     /// The KMS backend returned a signature with an invalid format.
-    #[error("k256 signature error")]
-    K256Error(#[source] k256::ecdsa::Error),
-    /// The KMS backend returned a signature with an invalid format.
     #[error("invalid signature format")]
     SignatureFormatError(#[source] DeserializationError),
 }
@@ -74,14 +67,8 @@ impl KmsSigner {
         let pub_key_output = client.get_public_key().key_id(key_id.clone()).send().await?;
         let spki_der = pub_key_output.public_key().ok_or(KmsSignerError::EmptyBlob)?.as_ref();
 
-        // Decode the DER-encoded SPKI and compress it.
-        let kpub = K256PublicKey::from_public_key_der(spki_der)
-            .context("failed to parse SPKI as secp256k1")?;
-        let compressed = kpub.to_encoded_point(true); // 33 bytes, 0x02/0x03 || X.
-        let sec1_compressed = compressed.as_bytes();
-
         // Decode the compressed SPKI as a Miden public key.
-        let pub_key = PublicKey::read_from_bytes(sec1_compressed)?;
+        let pub_key = PublicKey::from_der(spki_der)?;
         Ok(Self { key_id, pub_key, client })
     }
 }