SBF builds a $100 million prison startup, Tether challenges MiCA, and the US buries CBDC — weekly digest
This week, the crypto industry delivered several storylines worthy of a screenwriter's pen. From Sam Bankman-Fried's ambitious $100 million plans to Tether's cunning strategy to circumvent the European MiCA regulation, and from a legislative ban on the digital dollar in the U.S. to the collapse of meme coins. Let's break down the key events.
Sam Bankman-Fried's Ambitions: From Prison to Crypto Startup
The founder of FTX, serving a 25-year sentence, is not wasting time. According to information from his cellmates, SBF is making plans for life after release: for "serious money," he will need $50–100 million in startup capital, and he has already outlined a cryptocurrency project that "everyone will flock to." Simultaneously, he has appealed to Donald Trump for a presidential pardon, and his parents have hired lobbyists. The topic of FTX's venture investments has resurfaced in the community — stakes in SpaceX, Anthropic, and Solana, which were worth $114 billion at their peak, were sold off by bankruptcy administrators for a pittance. However, most commentators agree: even if SBF is a genius investor, his crimes (illegal use of client funds) negate any chance of restoring trust. My view: this case is an ideal test of whether the crypto sphere can forgive financial crimes for the sake of talent.
Tether vs. MiCA: A Strategy of Evasion or a New Era for Stablecoins?
The European authority ESMA has issued an ultimatum: by July 1, all crypto platforms must obtain a MiCA license or leave the EU. Tether refused the license, deeming the requirement to hold 60% of reserves in European banks as risky for financial stability. Instead, the company chose a roundabout path: investing in partners that already have legal status, through which fully legitimate stablecoins will be issued. Thus, Tether will maintain its presence in the EU without directly submitting to local regulators. The forced delisting of USDT in Europe will hit market makers: they will have to split liquidity pools, complicating arbitrage and widening spreads. In my opinion, this is only a temporary solution — sooner or later, regulators will close this loophole as well.
U.S. Bans CBDC Until 2030: A Victory for Stablecoins?
American lawmakers embedded a norm prohibiting the Federal Reserve from issuing a digital dollar into an affordable housing bill. This allowed them to bypass the resistance that had stalled a separate anti-CBDC document. The reasons for fear of a state-issued cryptocurrency are obvious: total surveillance of transactions, control over spending (programmable money with the ability to freeze without a court order), and the displacement of commercial banks. Private stablecoins, however, are exempt from the ban. The world's largest economy is officially exiting the global CBDC race, and stablecoins are becoming an alternative that the state is willing to tolerate. This is a strategic miscalculation — abandoning the digital dollar weakens the U.S.'s position in the future.
Meme Coins Burst: Pump.fun Loses 70% of Revenue
The revenue of the Pump.fun platform, which allowed anyone to issue a token for a few dollars, has plummeted by over 70%. Nearly 96% of traders either lost money or earned no more than $500. To prevent a price drop, developers announced the burning of tokens worth $370 million (36% of the supply). This reflects a large-scale process of capital redistribution: investors are locking in losses, withdrawing liquidity from unregulated instruments, and returning funds to TradFi. The practice of buying assets without fundamental value has stopped working. The market is becoming safer — and this is perhaps the only positive outcome.
CME Group and the Monopoly Lawsuit
The operator of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group, is suing the regulator CFTC over its permission for the Kalshi platform to launch perpetual futures. CME CEO Terrence Duffy appeals to investor protection, comparing high leverage to the 2008 mortgage crisis, and to the Dodd-Frank Act. However, behind this lies the defense of a monopoly: CME holds exclusive licenses for major benchmarks, and new instruments on these indices, according to the exchange's logic, must be traded on its platform. A similar pattern is observed with ICE, demanding "equal rules" due to the growth of the Hyperliquid platform. In my view, this is a classic case of old financial institutions trying to stifle innovation through the courts.
The Destruction of Communication Privacy: A Global Trend
The UK is preparing a law for a complete ban on social media for citizens under 16, while in France and the EU, an initiative is advancing for mass scanning of personal messages before they are sent. Under the pretext of fighting terrorism and protecting children, governments are forcing citizens to give up the basic right to privacy. As Pavel Durov noted, a forced abandonment of end-to-end encryption will not stop real criminals — they will simply write their own closed applications. In the end, ordinary law-abiding citizens will be the ones affected. Weakening encryption makes corporate networks of banks and funds vulnerable to hacker attacks, and users will have to switch to decentralized services to maintain privacy. This is an alarming signal for the entire crypto industry.
My expert conclusion: the week showed that the crypto market is maturing — meme coins are dying, regulators are increasing pressure, and old players (Tether, CME) are finding new ways to adapt. The future belongs to those who can combine innovation with compliance with the rules.