SBF builds a $100 million prison startup, Tether challenges MiCA, and the US bans CBDC: this week's top stories
This week, the crypto industry once again demonstrates just how unpredictable it is. While the founder of the collapsed FTX exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried, serving a 25-year sentence, is making plans for $100 million to launch a new crypto project, Tether is developing a clever strategy to circumvent the European MiCA regulation. Meanwhile, the US is preparing to legislatively ban the digital dollar until 2030, and the memecoin market is experiencing a crash that could mark the beginning of a long-awaited cleanup.
SBF's Ambitions: From Prison Cell to Crypto Startup
Sam Bankman-Fried, convicted of the largest financial fraud in cryptocurrency history, is not wasting any time. He told his cellmate that he would need between $50 million and $100 million in startup capital to "make serious money," and hinted at a crypto project that "everyone will flock to." Simultaneously, SBF appealed to Donald Trump for a presidential pardon, while his parents hired lobbyists. The topic of FTX's venture investments resurfaced in the community—stakes in SpaceX, Anthropic, and Solana, which were worth $114 billion at their peak but were sold off by bankruptcy administrators for pennies. Most analysts agree: even if SBF is a brilliant investor, his reputation is destroyed, and regaining trust after the illegal use of client funds will be nearly impossible.
Tether: A Maneuver to Bypass MiCA
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) demanded that by July 1, all crypto platforms obtain a license under the MiCA regulation, or face a complete exit from the EU. Tether's management refused a direct license, deeming the requirement to hold 60% of reserves in European banks as risky for financial stability. Instead, the company chose a strategy of indirect presence: investing in partners that already have legal status in the EU. Through them, fully legitimate stablecoins will be issued, allowing Tether to maintain its share of the European market without directly submitting to local regulators. However, the forced delisting of USDT in Europe could severely impact the market: market makers would have to separate liquidity pools, cross-exchange arbitrage would become more complicated, and spreads would widen.
USA: CBDC Ban Until 2030
The United States is moving toward a legislative ban on the digital dollar until at least the end of 2030. A provision prohibiting the Federal Reserve from issuing a CBDC is embedded in an affordable housing bill—this packaging allowed it to overcome the resistance that had stalled a separate anti-CBDC document. American lawmakers fear total 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 become an alternative that the state is willing to tolerate.
Memecoins: The Bubble Has Burst
Revenue on the Pump.fun platform has plummeted by over 70%. The platform allowed anyone to issue their own 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 approximately $370 million (36% of the supply). This situation reflects a massive process of capital redistribution: investors are locking in losses, withdrawing liquidity from unregulated instruments that major players view as gambling, and returning funds to TradFi. The practice of buying assets without fundamental value has stopped working—traders must return to basic rules and seek digital assets with real practical applications, making the market safer.
CME Group: Protecting Monopoly Through the Courts
The operator of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group, will sue the CFTC regulator 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, behind this lies the protection of a monopoly: CME holds exclusive licenses for all major benchmarks on which futures contracts are built. The logic is simple: we control the benchmarks, so new instruments on these indices must be traded with us. A similar pattern is observed with ICE, which demands "equal rules" due to the growth of the Hyperliquid platform.
Privacy Under Threat: Global Trend Toward Destroying Communication Secrecy
The UK government is preparing a law that would completely ban the use of social media for citizens under 16, while in France and the EU, an initiative to mass-scan personal messages on smartphones before sending is being promoted. A global trend is emerging: 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, the forced abandonment of end-to-end encryption technology (embedding backdoors) will not stop real criminals—they can easily write their own closed applications. Ultimately, ordinary law-abiding citizens will be 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.
My Expert Commentary: This week clearly demonstrates that the crypto industry is entering a phase of institutional maturity. The rejection of memecoins and the shift to assets with fundamental value is not just a trend but a necessity for survival. Tether and SBF show that even under strict regulation and reputational losses, loopholes can be found, but the market is becoming increasingly demanding of transparency and real project value.