Crypto news

This week, the market was shaken by several tectonic shifts. From Sam Bankman-Fried's prison ambitions to Tether's cunning strategy to bypass European regulation, we break down the key events that will shape the future of the crypto industry.

SBF's Prison Startup: $100 Million and a Trump Pardon

The founder of FTX, serving a 25-year sentence for the largest financial fraud, is not wasting time. According to information from his cellmate, SBF is already making plans for life after release. He will need startup capital of $50–$100 million to launch a new crypto project that, in his words, will "attract everyone." 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, currently valued at $114 billion, were sold by bankruptcy administrators for a fraction of that amount. Most analysts agree: even if SBF is a genius investor, his crimes (illegal use of customer funds) have permanently undermined trust in him.

Tether vs. MiCA: A Strategy of Bypass Without Direct Compliance

The European regulator ESMA issued an ultimatum: by July 1, all crypto platforms must obtain a license under the MiCA regulation. Tether, however, made a conscious decision to forgo the license, citing the risky requirement to hold 60% of reserves in European banks.

Instead, the company chose a more elegant path: investing in partners that already have legal status in the EU. Through them, fully legitimate stablecoins will be issued, allowing Tether to maintain its presence in the European market without direct subordination to local officials. Meanwhile, the forced delisting of USDT in Europe will deal a serious blow to professional market participants: market makers will have to split liquidity pools, cross-exchange arbitrage will become more complicated, and spreads will widen.

Digital Dollar Ban: The US Exits the CBDC Race

The United States is moving toward a legislative ban on the digital dollar, at least until the end of 2030. A provision prohibiting the Federal Reserve from issuing a CBDC is embedded in the affordable housing bill—this packaging allowed it to overcome resistance. American lawmakers fear total surveillance, control over spending, and the displacement of commercial banks.

Private stablecoins are explicitly excluded from the ban. This means 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.

Pump.fun Collapse: 96% of Traders Lost Money

Revenue on the Pump.fun platform has plummeted by more than 70%. The service, which allowed anyone to issue their own token for a few dollars, led to an explosive growth in the number of new coins, but 96% of traders either lost money or earned no more than $500. In an attempt to salvage the situation, developers announced the burning of tokens worth $370 million.

The situation reflects a massive process of capital redistribution: investors are massively locking in losses and returning funds to TradFi. The practice of buying assets without fundamental value has stopped working. The market is becoming safer, but the price is the loss of easy money for retail traders.

CME Group Defends Its Monopoly: Lawsuit Against Kalshi

The operator of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group, will sue regulator CFTC over its permission for platform Kalshi to launch perpetual futures. Formally, the head of CME appeals to investor protection, but in reality, it is about protecting a monopoly: CME holds exclusive licenses for all major benchmarks. A similar pattern is observed with ICE, which demands "equal rules" due to the growth of the Hyperliquid platform.

Destruction of Communication Privacy: A Global Trend

The UK is preparing a law banning social media for citizens under 16, while France and the EU are advancing an initiative for mass scanning of personal messages. As Pavel Durov noted, the forced abandonment of end-to-end encryption will not stop criminals but will make ordinary citizens vulnerable. Weakening encryption also opens the door for hacker attacks on corporate networks of banks and funds.

My conclusion: The market is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Tether demonstrates how to bypass regulation without breaking the law, and the US is choosing the path of supporting private stablecoins over government CBDCs. But the main thing is that the meme-coin bubble has burst, and now investors will have to return to basic rules: seeking assets with real value. The era of easy money is over.