A $100 million prison startup, Tether's revolt against MiCA, and a CBDC ban in the US: the week that broke the system
This week, the crypto industry once again found itself at the epicenter of dramatic events: from the ambitious plans of the convicted FTX founder to Tether's strategic maneuver bypassing European regulations. We also witnessed a legislative ban on the digital dollar in the US, the collapse of meme coins, and a legal war between traditional exchanges over monopoly. Let's break down the key trends.
SBF's Ambitions: A Startup Behind Bars
Sam Bankman-Fried, serving a 25-year sentence for multi-billion dollar fraud, is not wasting time. According to informed sources, he is already planning life after release, telling a cellmate that to "make serious money," he would need between $50 and $100 million in startup capital. This involves a new cryptocurrency project that, he claims, "everyone will flock to." Simultaneously, SBF has appealed to Donald Trump for a presidential pardon, and his parents have hired lobbyists. Notably, FTX's venture investments—stakes in SpaceX, Anthropic, and Solana—are currently valued at $114 billion, but bankruptcy administrators sold them for a much smaller sum. Despite SBF's potential genius as an investor, his reputation is destroyed: the illegal use of client funds makes restoring trust nearly impossible.
Tether vs. MiCA: A Bypass Maneuver
The European regulator ESMA has demanded that all crypto platforms obtain a license under the MiCA regulation by July 1. Tether refused this path, deeming the requirement to hold 60% of reserves in European banks as risky. Instead of direct compliance, the company chose a strategy of indirect presence: investing in partners with legal status who will issue fully legitimate stablecoins. This will allow Tether to maintain its market share in the EU without direct oversight from officials. However, the forced delisting of USDT will hit market makers: the splitting of liquidity pools and increased complexity of arbitrage will inevitably widen spreads.
US Bans the Digital Dollar
American lawmakers embedded a provision banning the Federal Reserve from issuing a CBDC until at least 2030 into an affordable housing bill. This allowed them to bypass resistance that had stalled a separate anti-CBDC document. Key concerns include total surveillance of transactions, programmable money with freeze capabilities, and the displacement of commercial banks. Private stablecoins are exempt from the ban, signaling the US's official exit from the global CBDC race and recognition of stablecoins as a tolerable alternative.
Meme Coin Crash: The Bubble Bursts
Revenue for 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 coins, but 96% of traders either lost money or earned no more than $500. To stop the decline, developers burned tokens worth $370 million (36% of the supply). This reflects a massive outflow of liquidity from unregulated instruments, which major players view as gambling. Investors are returning to TradFi, and the market is becoming safer: the practice of buying assets without fundamental value no longer works.
CME Group Defends Its Monopoly
The operator of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group, is suing the CFTC over permission granted to the Kalshi platform to launch perpetual futures. CME CEO Terrence Duffy formally appeals to investor protection and the Dodd-Frank Act, but the real goal is to protect the monopoly. CME holds exclusive licenses for major benchmarks, and Duffy insists: new instruments on these indices must be traded with us. A similar pattern is seen with ICE, demanding "equal rules" due to the rise of the Hyperliquid platform.
Global Trend: The Destruction of Communication Privacy
The UK government is preparing a law banning social media for citizens under 16, while France and the EU are pushing for scanning of private messages before they are sent. Under the pretext of fighting terrorism and protecting children, states are forcing citizens to abandon the basic right to privacy. As Pavel Durov rightly notes, forced abandonment of end-to-end encryption will not stop criminals—they will create their own closed applications. Ordinary users will be affected, and weakening encryption will make corporate bank networks vulnerable to hacker attacks. To preserve privacy, one will have to switch to decentralized services.
My Analysis: This week clearly demonstrates that the crypto industry is entering a phase of rigid institutionalization. Tether and SBF are trying to play by new rules, but their methods remain controversial. The CBDC ban in the US is a signal: the state prefers private stablecoins over government control, which could catalyze their mass adoption. However, the collapse of meme coins and CME's monopoly wars show that the market is clearing out the junk, and the future belongs to assets with real value.