Crypto news

This week has been marked by a series of game-changing events in the crypto industry. From the ambitious plans of the convicted FTX founder to Tether's strategic maneuver to bypass European regulations, we are witnessing tectonic shifts that will shape the future of the market.

Sam Bankman-Fried: A $100 Million Prison Startup

Sam Bankman-Fried, serving a 25-year sentence for fraud, is already planning his life after release. According to sources close to him, SBF told a cellmate that he would need between $50 and $100 million in startup capital for "serious earnings." He mentioned a new cryptocurrency project that, in his words, "everyone will flock to." Meanwhile, the FTX founder has appealed to Donald Trump for a presidential pardon, and his parents have hired professional lobbyists.

Particularly resonant in the community is the fact that FTX's venture investments—stakes in SpaceX, Anthropic, and Solana, with a combined value of $114 billion—were sold off by bankruptcy administrators for a fraction of that amount. This raises questions about the competence and motives behind the bankruptcy management process.

My analysis: Despite SBF's potential investment genius, his reputation is permanently damaged. Even if he is not joking about a new project, regaining trust after the illegal use of client funds will be nearly impossible. The market does not forgive such mistakes.

Tether vs. MiCA: Playing the Bypass Game

The European regulator 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, the largest stablecoin issuer, deliberately refused to obtain a license, deeming the requirement to hold 60% of reserves in European banks as an excessive risk to financial stability.

Instead of direct compliance, the company chose a strategy of indirect presence: Tether is investing in partners that already have legal status, through whom fully legitimate stablecoins will be issued. This allows it to maintain influence in the European market without direct oversight from local regulators.

The forced delisting of USDT in Europe will hit professional participants: market makers will have to split liquidity pools, cross-exchange arbitrage will become more complicated, and spreads will widen, increasing costs for everyone.

USA: Ban on the Digital Dollar Until 2030

American lawmakers are moving toward a complete ban on the issuance of a digital dollar (CBDC) at least until the end of 2030. The provision prohibiting the Federal Reserve from issuing a state-backed cryptocurrency is embedded in a bill on affordable housing—this packaging allowed it to bypass the resistance that had stalled a separate anti-CBDC document.

The main fears of lawmakers include: total real-time surveillance of every transaction, control over spending (programmable money with the ability to freeze without a court order, as in the digital yuan), and the displacement of commercial banks. Private stablecoins are explicitly excluded from the ban. This means the world's largest economy is officially exiting the global CBDC race, and stablecoins are becoming a recognized alternative.

The Meme Coin Bubble Bursts: Pump.fun Loses 70% of Revenue

Revenue for the Pump.fun platform, which allowed any user to launch their own token for a few dollars, has plummeted by more than 70%. The reason is market oversaturation: nearly 96% of traders either lost money or earned no more than $500. To stem the decline, developers announced the burning of tokens worth approximately $370 million (36% of the supply), but this did not stop the capital outflow.

We are witnessing a massive redistribution of funds: investors are locking in losses, withdrawing liquidity from unregulated instruments that major players view as gambling, and returning capital to TradFi. The practice of buying assets without fundamental value has stopped working—traders must return to basic principles and seek digital assets with real-world applications.

CME Group Defends Its Monopoly Through the Courts

The operator of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group, is suing the CFTC regulator over its permission for the Kalshi platform to launch perpetual futures. Formally, CME CEO Terrence Duffy appeals to investor protection, comparing high leverage to the 2008 mortgage crisis, but the real reason is protecting its monopoly.

CME holds exclusive licenses for all major benchmarks on which futures contracts are built. The logic of the lawsuit is simple: "We control the indices, so new instruments based on them must trade with us." A similar pattern is seen with ICE, which demands "equal rules" due to the growth of the Hyperliquid platform.

Global Trend: The Destruction of Communication Privacy

The UK is preparing a law to completely ban social media (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube) for citizens under 16, while France and the EU are pushing an initiative for mass scanning of personal messages on smartphones before they are sent. Under the pretext of fighting terrorism and protecting children, governments are forcing citizens to give up the basic right to privacy.

As Pavel Durov rightly noted, a forced abandonment of end-to-end encryption (embedding backdoors) will not stop real criminals—they can easily write their own private applications. In the end, 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.

Analyst Summary: This week has shown that the crypto industry is entering a phase of maturity—bubbles are bursting, regulators are tightening rules, and major players are seeking workarounds. Investors should prepare for a period of heightened volatility and a reassessment of fundamental asset valuation principles.