Crypto news

This week in the crypto industry has been unusually eventful: from the ambitious plans of the convicted FTX founder to Tether's regulatory maneuvers and a historic ban on the digital dollar in the US. We break down the key events that will reshape the market landscape.

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

Sam Bankman-Fried, serving a 25-year sentence for the largest financial fraud in crypto history, is already planning his life after release. He confessed to a cellmate that he would need $50–100 million in startup capital to "make serious money" and mentioned a certain crypto project that "everyone will flock to." Simultaneously, SBF appealed to Donald Trump for a presidential pardon, while his parents hired lobbyists.

The community once again recalled FTX's venture investments—stakes in SpaceX, Anthropic, and Solana, now worth $114 billion, but sold off by bankruptcy administrators for a pittance. However, most analysts agree: even if SBF is a brilliant investor, his crimes (illegal use of client funds) have permanently undermined trust. Bringing him back into the industry will be nearly impossible.

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

The European authority ESMA demanded that all crypto platforms obtain a license under the MiCA regulation by July 1, or face a complete exit from the EU. Tether deliberately refused a license, deeming the requirement to hold 60% of reserves in European banks risky for financial stability. Instead, the company chose a circumvention strategy: investing in partners who already have legal status and will issue fully compliant stablecoins. Thus, Tether will indirectly maintain its presence in the EU without directly submitting to local regulators.

This will have serious consequences: forced delisting of USDT will hit market makers, complicate cross-exchange arbitrage, and widen spreads. The European liquidity market faces fragmentation.

US Bans the Digital Dollar Until 2030

American lawmakers embedded a norm prohibiting the Fed from issuing a CBDC into an affordable housing bill—the only way to overcome the resistance that had stalled a separate anti-CBDC document. The ban will last at least until the end of 2030. Reasons: fear of total transaction surveillance, control over spending (as with the digital yuan), and the displacement of commercial banks. Private stablecoins are exempt from the ban. This marks the official exit of the world's largest economy from the global CBDC race and recognition of stablecoins as an acceptable alternative.

Memecoins: Bubble Burst, Capital Flows to TradFi

Revenue on the Pump.fun platform has plummeted by over 70%. The platform allowed anyone to issue a token for a few dollars, leading to an explosive increase in new coins, but nearly 96% of traders either lost money or earned less than $500. Developers announced the burning of tokens worth $370 million (36% of supply) to prevent further decline. This reflects a massive process: investors are locking in losses, withdrawing liquidity from unregulated instruments that major players consider gambling, and returning funds to traditional finance. The market is becoming safer but less speculative.

CME Group Defends Its Monopoly Through the Courts

The operator of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group, will sue the CFTC over its permission for the Kalshi platform to launch perpetual futures. CME head Terrence Duffy appeals to investor protection and the Dodd-Frank Act, but the real reason is monopoly: CME holds exclusive licenses for all major benchmarks. The logic is simple: if we control the indices, new instruments based on them must trade with us. A similar pattern is seen with ICE, demanding "equal rules" due to the rise of the Hyperliquid platform.

Destruction of Communication Privacy: A Global Trend

The UK is preparing a law to completely ban social media for citizens under 16, while in France and the EU, an initiative to mass-scan private messages before sending 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, forced abandonment of end-to-end encryption won't stop criminals—they will write their own closed applications. Ordinary law-abiding citizens will be hit, and weakening encryption systems will make corporate networks of banks and funds vulnerable to hacker attacks. To maintain privacy, users will have to switch to decentralized services.

My expert conclusion: This week shows that the crypto industry is entering a phase of intense regulatory confrontation. Tether and CME demonstrate how major players use legal and financial loopholes to maintain control, while the US CBDC ban and attacks on privacy signal a fundamental conflict between decentralization and state oversight. The memecoin market is collapsing, but this is a cleansing that will strengthen fundamental projects.