Crypto news

This week, the spotlight is on the ambitious plans of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, Tether's strategy to circumvent European MiCA regulations, and a legislative ban on the digital dollar in the US. Additionally, we are witnessing a burst meme coin bubble, legal battles by traditional exchanges over monopoly, and a growing global trend toward restricting privacy.

Sam Bankman-Fried's Ambitions: From Prison to Crypto Startup

Sam Bankman-Fried, serving a 25-year sentence for the largest financial fraud, is already planning his life after release. According to information from his cellmate, SBF stated that to "make serious money," he would need startup capital of $50-100 million and mentioned a new cryptocurrency project that "everyone will flock to." Simultaneously, he has appealed to Donald Trump for a presidential pardon, and his parents have hired lobbyists.

The community has revisited the topic of FTX's venture investments—stakes in SpaceX, Anthropic, and Solana, with a total value of $114 billion. Bankruptcy administrators sold these assets for a much smaller sum, raising questions about the efficiency of the process management. However, despite SBF's potential investment genius, most experts agree: his illegal actions with client funds negate any prospects of restoring trust. Even if his words about a future project were not a joke, rebuilding his reputation will be nearly impossible.

Tether vs. MiCA: A Circumvention Strategy Through Partners

The European regulator ESMA has demanded that all crypto platforms obtain a license under the MiCA regulation by July 1. Otherwise, they will have to stop servicing clients from the EU. Tether, the largest stablecoin issuer, deliberately declined to obtain a license, considering the requirement to hold 60% of reserves in European banks as risky for 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. Thus, the company maintains its influence on the European market without directly submitting to 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.

US Bans CBDC: Stablecoins as an Alternative

The United States is moving toward a legislative ban on the digital dollar at least until the end of 2030. The provision prohibiting the Federal Reserve from issuing a CBDC is embedded in a bill on affordable housing—this packaging allowed it to overcome the resistance that had stalled a separate anti-CBDC document. American lawmakers fear total surveillance of transactions, control over spending, and the displacement of commercial banks. Private stablecoins are explicitly excluded from the ban, making them an officially recognized alternative to government digital currency.

Meme Coins: Bubble Bursts, Investors Exit

Revenue on the Pump.fun platform has plummeted by more than 70%. The platform, which allowed anyone to issue their own token for a few dollars, led 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 about $370 million. The situation reflects a large-scale process of capital redistribution: investors are locking in losses and returning funds to TradFi. The practice of buying assets without fundamental value has stopped working, and the market is gradually returning to assets with real utility.

CME Group Defends Its Monopoly

The operator of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group, will sue the regulator CFTC over permission granted to the Kalshi platform to launch perpetual futures. The head of CME appeals to investor protection, comparing high leverage to the 2008 mortgage crisis, but in reality, it is about protecting a monopoly: CME holds exclusive licenses for major benchmarks, and new instruments on these indices, in their logic, should only be traded with them.

Global Trend: Destroying Communication Privacy

The UK government is preparing a law banning the use of social media for citizens under 16, while in France and the EU, an initiative for mass scanning of personal messages is advancing. Under the pretext of fighting terrorism or protecting children, governments are forcing citizens to give up the basic right to privacy. As Pavel Durov noted, a forced abandonment of end-to-end encryption will not stop real criminals—they will simply write their own closed applications. Ultimately, ordinary law-abiding citizens will be affected, and weakening encryption makes corporate networks vulnerable to hacker attacks.

My Analysis: This week's events show that the crypto industry is entering a new phase—from chaotic growth to institutional power struggles. Tether demonstrates how to circumvent regulations without breaking the law, and the US ban on CBDC could become a powerful catalyst for the development of private stablecoins. However, the main lesson is that the meme coin market has definitively proven its unsustainability, and investors need to return to fundamental analysis.