Crypto news

This week, the crypto industry once again demonstrates its unique ability to blend absurdity with strategy. While the founder of the collapsed FTX empire, Sam Bankman-Fried, makes plans for release with a multi-million dollar startup, Tether invents an elegant way to bypass European regulations, and the US officially abandons the digital dollar until 2030. We break down the key events reshaping the market landscape.

SBF's Ambitions: A Prison Startup and a Pardon from Trump

Sam Bankman-Fried, serving a 25-year sentence for the largest financial fraud in cryptocurrency history, is not wasting any time. According to sources close to him, he is already discussing the launch of a new crypto project requiring between $50 and $100 million in startup capital. Simultaneously, he has appealed to Donald Trump for a presidential pardon, and his parents have hired professional lobbyists. Notably, FTX's portfolio still held stakes in SpaceX, Anthropic, and Solana, which bankruptcy administrators liquidated for a sum tens of times less than their actual value — around $114 billion. The community agrees: even if SBF is a genius investor, his crimes (illegal use of customer funds) make restoring trust nearly impossible. My analysis: this case is a stark example of how personal reputation can destroy even the most promising business ideas.

Tether vs. MiCA: A Bypass Strategy Through Partners

The European authority ESMA has set a deadline — by July 1, all crypto platforms must obtain a license under the MiCA regulation or leave the EU market. Tether deliberately refused a license, deeming the requirement to hold 60% of reserves in European banks a threat to financial stability. Instead, the company chose a strategy of "indirect presence": investing in already licensed partners who will issue fully legitimate stablecoins. Thus, Tether will maintain access to the European market without directly submitting to local regulators. However, the forced delisting of USDT in Europe will hit market makers, complicate inter-exchange arbitrage, and widen spreads. In my opinion, this is a temporary tactic that could provoke retaliatory measures from ESMA.

CBDC Ban in the US: A Victory for Stablecoins

The US is moving toward a legislative ban on the digital dollar until at least 2030. A provision prohibiting the Fed from issuing a CBDC is embedded in an affordable housing bill — this packaging allowed it to bypass opposition that had blocked a separate anti-CBDC document. American lawmakers fear total transaction surveillance, control over spending (as in the digital yuan), and the displacement of commercial banks. Private stablecoins are explicitly exempt from the ban. This means the world's largest economy is officially exiting the global CBDC race, and stablecoins are becoming a recognized alternative. My forecast: this decision will strengthen the positions of USDT and USDC as tools for international settlements.

The Memecoin Crash: Pump.fun Loses 70% of Revenue

Revenue for the Pump.fun platform, which allowed anyone to issue a token for a few dollars, has plummeted by over 70%. Nearly 96% of traders either lost money or earned no more than $500. To halt the decline, developers announced the burning of tokens worth $370 million (36% of the supply). The situation reflects a massive capital outflow from unregulated, speculative instruments back into TradFi. The practice of buying assets with no fundamental value has stopped working. The market is forced to return to basic rules: investors are seeking projects with real-world applications, making the ecosystem more sustainable.

CME Group vs. CFTC: Protecting a Monopoly

The operator of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group, is suing the regulator CFTC over its permission for the Kalshi platform to launch perpetual futures. Formally, CME appeals to investor protection and the Dodd-Frank Act, but the real reason is exclusive licenses for major benchmarks. CME's logic: we control the indices, so new instruments based on them should trade with us. A similar pattern is seen with ICE, demanding "equal rules" due to Hyperliquid's growth. In my opinion, this is a classic attempt by traditional exchanges to maintain a monopoly, which could stifle innovation.

Global Trend: The Destruction of Communication Privacy

The UK is preparing a law banning social media for citizens under 16, while in France and the EU, an initiative to mass-scan personal messages before they are sent is advancing. 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 criminals — they will simply create their own private applications. Ultimately, ordinary users will be affected, and weakened encryption will make corporate networks vulnerable to hackers. My conclusion: this trend will accelerate the shift to decentralized services and strengthen the position of cryptocurrencies as tools for protecting privacy.

Expert Summary: The week showed that the crypto industry continues to evolve, facing regulatory challenges but finding unconventional solutions. The US's abandonment of CBDCs and Tether's strategy are signals that the stablecoin market will grow, while traditional exchange monopolies will erode. However, reputational risks (as in SBF's case) remain the main obstacle to restoring trust.