Crypto news

This week, the crypto industry once again demonstrates its paradoxical nature: from the ambitions of a convicted fraudster to the strategic maneuvers of the largest stablecoin issuer. We break down the key events shaping the market landscape.

Sam Bankman-Fried's Ambitions: A $100 Million Prison Startup

The founder of FTX, serving a 25-year sentence for the largest financial fraud, is not wasting time. According to information obtained from his cellmates, SBF is making plans for life after release: to "earn serious money," he would need between $50 and $100 million in startup capital. He has already mentioned a certain crypto project that "everyone will flock to," appealed to Donald Trump for a presidential pardon, and his parents have hired lobbyists. Meanwhile, information has surfaced about FTX's venture investments (stakes in SpaceX, Anthropic, Solana totaling $114 billion), which bankruptcy administrators sold for pennies. However, the community agrees: even if SBF is a genius investor, his illegal actions with client funds make restoring trust virtually impossible.

Tether vs. MiCA: A Strategy to Bypass Without a License

The European regulator ESMA requires all crypto platforms to obtain a license under the MiCA regulation by July 1, or face a complete exit from the EU. Tether's management deliberately refused a license, deeming the requirement to hold 60% of reserves in European banks as risky. Instead, the company chose a strategy of indirect presence: investing in partners with legal status, through whom fully legitimate stablecoins will be issued. This way, Tether will maintain its presence in the EU market without direct subordination to local officials. Meanwhile, the forced delisting of USDT in Europe will hit market makers and complicate inter-exchange arbitrage.

USA: Ban on the Digital Dollar Until 2030

The US is moving toward a legislative ban on the digital dollar (CBDC) at least until the end of 2030. A provision prohibiting the Fed from issuing a CBDC is embedded in the affordable housing bill—this packaging allowed it to overcome resistance. American lawmakers fear total surveillance of transactions, control over spending, and the displacement of commercial banks. Private stablecoins are exempt from the ban. For the global CBDC race, this means the world's largest economy is officially exiting it, and stablecoins are becoming an alternative that the state is willing to tolerate.

The Meme Coin Bubble Bursts: Pump.fun Revenues Plunge 70%

Revenues of the Pump.fun platform have plunged by more than 70%. The platform allowed anyone to issue a token for a few dollars, leading to an explosive increase in the number of new coins, but nearly 96% of traders either lost money or earned no more than $500. To prevent a price drop, developers announced the burning of tokens worth $370 million (36% of the supply). The situation reflects a large-scale process of capital redistribution: investors are withdrawing liquidity from unregulated instruments, which 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-world applications.

CME Group Defends Its Monopoly: Lawsuit Against CFTC

The operator of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group, will sue regulator CFTC over its permission for 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 cites the Dodd-Frank Act. However, CME holds exclusive licenses for the major benchmarks on which futures contracts are built. The logic is simple: we control the benchmarks, so new instruments on these indices must trade with us.

Global Trend: The Destruction of Communication Privacy

The UK government is preparing a law banning social media (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube) for citizens under 16, while in France and the EU, an initiative to mass-scan private messages is advancing. Under the pretext of fighting terrorism or protecting children, governments are forcing citizens to give up their right to privacy. As Pavel Durov noted, the forced abandonment of end-to-end encryption (embedding backdoors) will not stop criminals but will make corporate networks of banks and funds vulnerable. To preserve privacy, users will have to switch to decentralized services.

My Opinion: This week clearly demonstrates that the crypto industry is moving toward maturity. We are witnessing not just the collapse of hype-driven instruments, but a structural redistribution of capital toward assets with real value. Meanwhile, regulators and major players are battling for market control, which will inevitably lead to consolidation and stricter rules. Investors should be prepared for the era of easy money and meme coins coming to an end.