SBF builds a $100 million prison startup, Tether challenges MiCA, and the US bans CBDC: weekly digest
This week, the market is being shaken by several tectonic shifts: from the ambitious plans of the convicted FTX founder to Tether's strategic maneuver to bypass European regulations. Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers have finally buried the idea of a digital dollar, and the meme-coin bubble has burst, leaving 96% of traders empty-handed. Let's break down the key events.
Sam Bankman-Fried's Ambitions Behind Bars
Sam Bankman-Fried, serving a 25-year sentence for the largest financial fraud in crypto history, is not wasting time. According to information from his cellmate, SBF is already planning his life after release: he will need between $50 and $100 million in startup capital to launch a new cryptocurrency project, which he claims "everyone will flock to." Simultaneously, he has appealed to Donald Trump for a presidential pardon, and his parents have hired professional lobbyists. The topic of FTX's venture investments has resurfaced in the community — stakes in SpaceX, Anthropic, and Solana, which bankruptcy administrators sold for pennies, despite their real value being estimated at $114 billion. My opinion: even if SBF is a truly brilliant investor, his reputation is permanently destroyed. Regaining trust after the illegal use of client funds is nearly impossible, and any new project of his will be met with extreme skepticism.
Tether Plays Around MiCA
The European regulator ESMA has demanded that all crypto platforms obtain a license under the MiCA regulation by July 1, or face a complete exit from the EU. Tether's management deliberately refused the license, deeming the requirement to hold 60% of reserves in European banks as risky for financial stability. Instead, the company chose an elegant circumvention strategy: investing in partners who already have legal status. Through them, fully legitimate stablecoins will be issued, allowing Tether to indirectly maintain its presence in the EU market without direct subordination to local officials. However, the forced delisting of USDT in Europe will hit professional participants: market makers will have to split liquidity pools, cross-exchange arbitrage will become more complicated, and spreads will widen. This is a classic example of regulators, in trying to impose order, creating new liquidity risks.
U.S. Bans Digital Dollar Until 2030
The United States has officially exited the global CBDC race. The legislative ban on issuing a digital dollar is embedded in the affordable housing bill — this packaging allowed it to overcome the resistance that had stalled a separate anti-CBDC document. U.S. lawmakers fear total surveillance of every transaction, control over spending (as in the digital yuan), and the displacement of commercial banks. Private stablecoins are explicitly excluded from the ban. For the market, this means the world's largest economy officially acknowledges: the future lies with decentralized digital currencies, not state-issued ones. This is a powerful signal for investors.
The Meme-Coin Bubble Bursts
Revenue on the Pump.fun platform has plummeted by over 70%. The platform, which allowed anyone to launch their own token for a few dollars, led to an explosive increase in the number of new coins, but nearly 96% of traders either lost money or earned no more than $500. Developers announced the burning of tokens worth $370 million (36% of the supply) in an attempt to prevent a price collapse. The situation reflects a large-scale process of capital redistribution: investors are massively locking in losses, withdrawing liquidity from unregulated instruments that major players view as gambling, and returning funds to TradFi. The practice of buying assets without fundamental value has stopped working — traders must return to basic rules and seek digital assets with real practical applications. This makes the market healthier, but painful for speculators.
CME Group Defends Its Monopoly
The operator of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group, will sue regulator CFTC over its permission for the Kalshi platform to launch perpetual futures. CME CEO Terrence Duffy formally appeals to investor protection (comparing high leverage to the 2008 mortgage crisis) and the Dodd-Frank Act. However, the underlying logic is simple: CME holds exclusive licenses for all major benchmarks on which futures contracts are built. Duffy combined investor protection and monopoly defense in the lawsuit — essentially, he demands that new instruments on these indices be traded only with them. A similar pattern is seen with ICE, demanding "equal rules" due to the rise of the Hyperliquid platform. This is a classic attempt by traditional exchanges to stifle innovation through the courts.
Global Trend Towards Destroying Privacy of Correspondence
The UK government is preparing a law that completely bans the use of social networks (Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube) for citizens under 16. In France and the EU, an initiative is being pushed for mass scanning of personal messages on smartphones before they are sent. Under the pretext of fighting terrorism or protecting children, governments are forcing citizens to give up the basic right to privacy. As Pavel Durov noted, the forced abandonment of end-to-end encryption (embedding backdoors) will not stop real criminals — they can easily write their own closed applications. In the end, ordinary law-abiding citizens will be the ones affected. Additionally, weakening encryption systems makes corporate networks of banks and funds vulnerable to hacker attacks. To preserve privacy, users will have to switch to decentralized services — and this is perhaps the only positive aspect of this alarming trend.
My verdict: The week showed that the crypto market is maturing — bubbles burst, regulators seek balance, and major players adapt. Investors should focus on assets with real value and be prepared for further consolidation.