Crypto news

This week, my analysis focuses on Sam Bankman-Fried's ambitious plans, Tether's strategy to circumvent MiCA rules, and the ban on the digital dollar in the U.S. Additionally, I will examine the burst meme coin bubble, traditional exchanges' legal battles for monopoly, and the global trend of states destroying communication privacy.

Sam Bankman-Fried's Ambitions

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, serving a 25-year sentence for one of the largest financial frauds, is building ambitious plans for life after release. He confessed to his cellmate that he would need $50 million to $100 million in startup capital to "make serious money" and mentioned a cryptocurrency project that "everyone will flock to." Simultaneously, he appealed to Donald Trump for a presidential pardon, and his parents hired lobbyists. The community again recalled FTX's venture investments (stakes in SpaceX, Anthropic, Solana totaling $114 billion), which bankruptcy administrators sold for a fraction of that amount. However, most commentators agree: although SBF may be a genius investor, he committed completely unacceptable acts by illegally using client funds. Therefore, even if he wasn't joking about the future crypto project, it's hard to imagine him regaining trust.

Tether's Strategy in Europe

The European authority ESMA announced that by July 1, all cryptocurrency platforms must obtain a license under the new MiCA regulation, or they must completely cease servicing EU clients. Tether's management deliberately refused to obtain a license, considering the requirement to hold 60% of reserves in European banks risky for financial stability. However, the company chose a strategy to circumvent direct restrictions and is now investing in partners who already have legal status. Fully legitimate stablecoins will be issued through them, allowing Tether to indirectly maintain its presence in the EU market without direct subordination to local officials. Meanwhile, the forced delisting of USDT in Europe will hit professional market participants: market makers will have to split liquidity pools, inter-exchange arbitrage will become more complicated, and spreads will widen.

Ban on the Digital Dollar in the U.S.

The U.S. is moving toward a legislative ban on the digital dollar, at least until the end of 2030. The rule prohibiting the Fed from issuing a CBDC is embedded in an affordable housing bill—this packaging allowed overcoming resistance that had stalled a separate anti-CBDC document. American lawmakers fear specific things: total real-time surveillance of every transaction, control over spending (programmable money with the ability to freeze without court order, as in the digital yuan), and the displacement of commercial banks. Private stablecoins are explicitly exempt from the ban. For the global CBDC race, this means the world's largest economy is officially exiting it, with stablecoins designated as an alternative the state is willing to tolerate.

Consequences of the Meme Coin Hype

Revenue from the Pump.fun platform has plummeted by over 70%. The platform allowed anyone to issue their own token for a few dollars, leading to an explosive increase in the number of new coins, but ultimately nearly 96% of all traders either lost money or earned no more than $500. To prevent a price drop, developers announced the burning of tokens worth about $370 million (36% of supply). The situation reflects a massive capital redistribution process: investors are mass-recording 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, forcing traders to return to basic rules and seek digital assets with real practical applications, making the market safer.

CME Group Defends Its Monopoly

Chicago Mercantile Exchange operator CME Group will sue regulator CFTC over allowing 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. Meanwhile, CME holds exclusive licenses for all major benchmarks on which futures contracts are built. Duffy combined investor protection and monopoly defense in the lawsuit. The logic goes roughly like this: we control the benchmarks, so new instruments on these indices must trade with us. A similar pattern is observed with ICE, demanding "equal rules" due to the growth of the Hyperliquid platform.

Destruction of Communication Privacy

The UK government is preparing a law that will completely ban the use of social media (Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube) for citizens under 16, while in France and the EU, an initiative is being promoted to mass-scan personal messages on smartphones before sending. A global trend is emerging: under the pretext of fighting terrorism or protecting children, governments are forcing citizens to abandon the basic right to privacy. As Pavel Durov noted, the forced abandonment of end-to-end encryption technology (embedding backdoors) will not stop real criminals, as they can easily write their own private applications. Ultimately, ordinary law-abiding citizens will be affected. Additionally, weakening encryption systems makes corporate networks of banks and funds vulnerable to hacker attacks and data theft, and users will have to switch to decentralized services to maintain privacy.

My professional conclusion: The cryptocurrency market is experiencing a turning point—from speculative hype to regulated maturity. SBF and Tether show that even in prison or under regulatory pressure, one can plan for billions, but investor trust is the most fragile asset. The fight for privacy and monopolies in TradFi will only intensify, and decentralized solutions will become the only refuge for those who value freedom.