SBF, Tether, and the War with Regulators: Major Distortions in the Crypto Market This Week
The week was rich in events reshaping the crypto industry landscape. From prison startups by the former king of exchanges to sophisticated legal maneuvers by the largest stablecoin issuer, the market once again demonstrates its non-linearity. Let's break down the key points of tension.
Sam Bankman-Fried's Ambitions: Genius or Madman?
The founder of the bankrupt FTX, serving a 25-year sentence for multi-billion dollar fraud, is not wasting time. According to information from his cellmates, SBF is making plans for life after release, estimating the necessary starting capital at $50–100 million. He is already hinting at a new crypto project that, in his words, "will attract everyone." Simultaneously, a petition for a presidential pardon has been submitted to Donald Trump, and his parents have hired professional lobbyists.
Particularly resonant is the fact that FTX's venture investments — stakes in SpaceX, Anthropic, and Solana, valued at $114 billion — were sold off by bankruptcy administrators for a fraction of that amount. The community is divided: some see SBF as a unique investment talent, others as a criminal who violated basic principles of trust. Restoring his reputation after the illegal use of client funds will be nearly impossible, even if his ideas turn out to be brilliant.
Tether vs. MiCA: A Strategy of Circumvention
The European authority ESMA has issued an ultimatum: by July 1, all crypto platforms must obtain a license under the MiCA regulation, or face a complete exit from the EU. Tether, however, has taken a different path. The company's management deliberately refused the license, considering the requirement to hold 60% of reserves in European banks a threat to financial stability.
Instead of direct compliance, Tether is investing in already licensed partners who will issue fully legitimate stablecoins. This allows it to maintain a presence in the European market without submitting to local regulators. However, the forced delisting of USDT will impact professional participants: market makers will have to split liquidity pools, inter-exchange arbitrage will become more complicated, and spreads will widen. The market loses a single liquidity tool, which will negatively affect everyone.
US Abandons CBDC Until 2030
American lawmakers have embedded a norm prohibiting the Federal Reserve from issuing a digital dollar into a bill on affordable housing. This roundabout maneuver overcame the resistance that had stalled a separate anti-CBDC document. The ban is in effect at least until the end of 2030.
Main concerns include total surveillance of transactions, programmability of money (with the possibility of freezing without trial, as in the digital yuan), and the displacement of commercial banks. Private stablecoins are exempt from the ban. This means the world's largest economy is officially exiting the global CBDC race, while stablecoins gain the status of a tolerated alternative from the state.
The Meme Coin Bubble Bursts: Pump.fun Loses 70% of Revenue
The Pump.fun platform, which allowed anyone to issue a token for a few dollars, is experiencing a collapse. Revenues have plummeted by over 70%. Nearly 96% of traders either lost money or earned less than $500. Developers are trying to salvage the situation by burning tokens worth $370 million (36% of supply), but this is only a temporary measure.
We are witnessing a large-scale process of capital redistribution: investors are locking in losses, withdrawing liquidity from unregulated instruments that major players rightly consider gambling, and returning funds to TradFi. The practice of buying assets without fundamental value has stopped working. The market is forced to return to basic rules — seeking digital assets with real practical application. This makes the ecosystem healthier in the long term.
CME Group Defends Monopoly Through Court
The operator of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group, is suing the regulator CFTC over permission granted to the Kalshi platform to launch perpetual futures. Formally, the CME head appeals to investor protection, comparing high leverage to the 2008 mortgage crisis. However, the real motive is protecting the monopoly on key benchmarks owned by CME.
The logic is simple: if we control the indices, then new instruments based on them should only be traded with us. A similar pattern is observed with ICE, demanding "equal rules" due to the growth of the Hyperliquid platform. This is a classic case where concern for investors serves as a cover for anti-competitive actions.
Global Trend: Destruction of Communication Privacy
The UK is preparing a law completely banning social media for citizens under 16. In France and the EU, an initiative is being pushed for mass scanning of personal messages on smartphones before sending. 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 notes, a forced abandonment of end-to-end encryption will not stop real criminals — they can easily write their own closed applications. Ordinary law-abiding citizens will be the ones affected. Furthermore, weakening encryption systems makes corporate networks of banks and funds vulnerable to hacker attacks. To preserve privacy, users will increasingly have to switch to decentralized services.
My analysis: We are witnessing a fundamental shift: from speculative bubbles and monopoly structures to a more mature, regulated, and decentralized market. Tether and SBF demonstrate that even under intense pressure, loopholes can be found, but the cost of mistakes for investors is becoming increasingly high. The key question is whether the industry can maintain its innovative spirit without descending into chaos or succumbing to total control.