A $100 million prison startup and Tether's revolt against the EU: how SBF and stablecoins rewrote the rules of the game
The week was eventful: from Sam Bankman-Fried's ambitious $100 million plans to Tether's strategic maneuver bypassing the European MiCA regulation. Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers blocked the digital dollar until 2030, and the meme-coin bubble burst, dragging down 96% of traders. Let's break down the key events.
Sam Bankman-Fried's Ambitions: A Prison Startup
The founder of FTX, serving a 25-year sentence for the largest financial fraud, is not wasting time. He told cellmates about plans to launch a cryptocurrency project after his release, requiring $50–100 million in startup capital. Simultaneously, SBF appealed to Donald Trump for a presidential pardon, and his parents hired lobbyists. The community revisited the topic of FTX's venture investments: stakes in SpaceX, Anthropic, and Solana, valued at $114 billion, were sold by bankruptcy administrators for pennies. However, most analysts agree: even if SBF is a genius investor, his illegal use of client funds has permanently eroded trust. Bringing him back to the crypto industry will be nearly impossible.
Tether vs. MiCA: A Bypass Strategy
The European ESMA authority demanded that all crypto platforms obtain a license under the MiCA regulation by July 1, or face a complete exit from the EU. Tether deliberately refused the license, deeming the requirement to hold 60% of reserves in European banks risky for financial stability. Instead, the company chose a strategy of indirect presence: investing in partners that already have legal status. Through them, fully legitimate stablecoins will be issued, allowing Tether to maintain its EU market share without direct subordination to local regulators. The forced delisting of USDT in Europe will hit market makers and complicate inter-exchange arbitrage, widening spreads.
U.S. Blocks the Digital Dollar
American lawmakers embedded a ban on the Federal Reserve issuing a CBDC until the end of 2030 into a bill on affordable housing. This allowed them to bypass resistance that had stalled a separate anti-CBDC document. Key concerns: total surveillance of transactions, control over spending (as with the digital yuan), and the displacement of commercial banks. Private stablecoins are exempt from the ban. The world's largest economy is officially exiting the global CBDC race, recognizing stablecoins as an alternative the state is willing to tolerate.
The Meme-Coin Crash: A Market Lesson
Revenue on the Pump.fun platform plummeted by over 70%. Nearly 96% of traders either lost money or earned no more than $500. To prevent a collapse, developers announced the burning of tokens worth $370 million (36% of the supply). The situation reflects a massive capital outflow from unregulated instruments, which major players view as gambling. Investors are returning to TradFi, and traders must seek assets with real fundamental value. This makes the market safer.
CME Group Defends Its Monopoly
The operator of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group, will sue the CFTC over its permission for the Kalshi platform to launch perpetual futures. Formally, it's about investor protection and citing the Dodd-Frank Act, but in reality, it's about defending a monopoly: CME holds exclusive licenses for major benchmarks. A similar pattern is seen with ICE, demanding "equal rules" due to Hyperliquid's growth.
Global Trend: Destroying Communication Privacy
The UK is preparing a law to completely ban social media for citizens under 16, while France and the EU are pushing for scanning private messages before they are sent. Under the pretext of fighting terrorism, governments are forcing a renunciation of the basic right to privacy. As Pavel Durov noted, a forced abandonment of end-to-end encryption will not stop criminals but will harm ordinary citizens and make corporate networks vulnerable to hackers. Users will have to switch to decentralized services.
My analysis: This week shows how old players (SBF, Tether, CME) adapt to new realities using legal and strategic loopholes. The meme-coin market demonstrated that hype without fundamentals leads to collapse. And global pressure on privacy is pushing the industry toward decentralization as the only way out.