Crypto news

This week, the crypto industry once again demonstrates its multifaceted nature: from the prison ambitions of the FTX founder to Tether's strategic maneuvers in Europe and legislative initiatives in the US. I analyze the key events shaping the future of the market.

Sam Bankman-Fried's Ambitions: From Prison to a $100 Million Startup

Sam Bankman-Fried, serving a 25-year sentence for the largest financial fraud, remains optimistic. He revealed to a cellmate his plans for life after release: to "make serious money," he would need startup capital of $50–$100 million, and he mentioned a certain crypto project that, in his words, "will attract everyone." Simultaneously, SBF appealed to Donald Trump for a presidential pardon, while his parents have already hired lobbyists. The topic of FTX's venture investments has resurfaced in the community: stakes in SpaceX, Anthropic, and Solana, now valued at $114 billion, were sold by bankruptcy administrators for a fraction of that amount. However, despite possible investment talents, most experts agree that the illegal use of client funds makes restoring trust in SBF virtually impossible.

Tether vs. MiCA: A Strategy to Bypass European Rules

The European authority ESMA requires all crypto platforms to obtain a license under the MiCA regulation by July 1, or face a complete exit from the EU. Tether deliberately refused a license, considering the requirement to hold 60% of reserves in European banks a threat to financial stability. Instead, the company chose an indirect strategy: investing in partners with legal status, through whom fully MiCA-compliant stablecoins will be issued. This will allow Tether to maintain a presence in Europe without direct subordination to local regulators. However, the forced delisting of USDT will hit professional market participants: market makers will have to split liquidity pools, complicating cross-exchange arbitrage and widening spreads.

US Bans Digital Dollar Until 2030

The United States is moving toward a legislative ban on issuing a digital dollar until at least 2030. The provision blocking the Fed's CBDC is embedded in an affordable housing bill—this packaging helped overcome resistance that had stalled a separate anti-CBDC document. American lawmakers fear total surveillance of transactions, control over spending (as in the digital yuan), and the displacement of commercial banks. Private stablecoins are exempt from the ban, meaning the world's largest economy is officially exiting the global CBDC race and recognizing stablecoins as an alternative the state is willing to tolerate.

The Meme Coin Hype Collapse: Pump.fun Loses 70% of Revenue

Revenue on the Pump.fun platform has plummeted by over 70%. The platform, which allowed anyone to issue a 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. To prevent a price drop, developers announced the burning of tokens worth $370 million (36% of the supply). The situation reflects a large-scale capital redistribution process: investors are 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, and traders must seek digital assets with real-world applications, making the market safer.

CME Group Defends Its Monopoly Through the Courts

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 cites the Dodd-Frank Act. However, behind this lies the defense of a monopoly: CME holds exclusive licenses for all major benchmarks on which futures contracts are built. The logic is simple: "we control the indices, so new instruments based on them should trade with us." A similar pattern is observed with ICE, which demands "equal rules" due to the growth of the Hyperliquid platform.

Global Trend Toward Destroying Communication Privacy

The UK government is preparing a law that would completely ban the use of social media (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube) for citizens under 16, while in France and the EU, an initiative is advancing to mass-scan personal messages on smartphones before they are sent. Under the pretext of fighting terrorism and protecting children, governments are forcing citizens to abandon the basic right to privacy. As Pavel Durov noted, a forced abandonment of end-to-end encryption will not stop real criminals, who can easily write their own closed applications. Ultimately, ordinary law-abiding citizens will be the ones affected. Weakening encryption systems makes corporate networks of banks and funds vulnerable to hacker attacks, and users will have to switch to decentralized services to maintain privacy.

My analysis: This week clearly shows that the crypto market is going through a phase of institutionalization and regulatory pressure. Tether's strategy is a vivid example of how major players adapt to new rules without sacrificing their business model. The US ban on CBDCs and the defense of CME's monopolies underscore that traditional financial structures are not ready to cede control, while the collapse of meme coins signals a return to fundamental values. Investors should prepare for a more mature, but also more competitive, market.