Crypto news

This week, the crypto industry once again demonstrates its paradoxical nature: the founder of the collapsed FTX empire, while serving a 25-year sentence, is already planning a new crypto project with $100 million in capital, while the issuer of the largest stablecoin, Tether, finds an elegant way to bypass European regulations without directly complying with them. Meanwhile, the US is legislatively abandoning the digital dollar, and the meme-coin bubble is bursting with a deafening crash, taking billions with it.

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

Sam Bankman-Fried, serving time for the largest financial fraud in cryptocurrency history, is not wasting any time. According to information from his cellmates, SBF is already estimating the starting capital for a new crypto project at $50–100 million and is confident that "everyone will flock" to his idea. Simultaneously, he has appealed to Donald Trump for a presidential pardon, and his parents have hired lobbyists. The topic of FTX's venture investments has 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 a pittance. My analysis: even if SBF is truly a genius investor, his reputation is destroyed forever. Regaining trust after stealing client funds is a task no startup can handle.

Tether vs. MiCA: A Maneuver in Europe

The European authority ESMA has issued an ultimatum: by July 1, all crypto platforms must obtain a license under the MiCA regulation or leave the EU market. Tether made a conscious decision not to obtain a license, deeming the requirement to hold 60% of reserves in European banks a threat to financial stability. Instead, the company is investing in partners who already have legal status, through whom fully legitimate stablecoins will be issued. This is a brilliant strategy: Tether maintains its presence in Europe without directly submitting to regulators. However, the market is already feeling the consequences: the forced delisting of USDT will hit market makers, complicate inter-exchange arbitrage, and widen spreads. Europe risks being left without a key liquidity tool.

The US Buries the Digital Dollar Until 2030

The United States is legislatively banning the issuance of a digital dollar (CBDC) at least until the end of 2030. The provision blocking the Federal Reserve on this matter was "packaged" into a bill on affordable housing—a tactic that overcame the resistance that had stalled a separate anti-CBDC document. Lawmakers fear total surveillance of transactions, control over spending (similar to the digital yuan), and the displacement of commercial banks. Private stablecoins, however, 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 a state-approved alternative.

The Collapse of Pump.fun: The Meme-Coin Bubble Bursts

Revenue on the Pump.fun platform has plummeted by more than 70%. This service allowed anyone to issue their own token for a few dollars, leading to an explosive increase in the number of coins, but nearly 96% of traders either lost money or earned no more than $500. To prevent a crash, developers announced the burning of tokens worth $370 million (36% of the supply). This is a classic example of capital redistribution: investors are massively realizing 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. The market is becoming safer, but it has required going through a painful cleansing.

CME Group vs. CFTC: Protecting Monopoly or Investors?

The operator of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group, is suing the 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, the reality is more prosaic: CME holds exclusive licenses for all major benchmarks on which futures contracts are based. Duffy's logic is simple: "We control the indices, so new instruments based on them must be traded with us." A similar pattern is observed with ICE, which demands "equal rules" due to the growth of the Hyperliquid platform. This is not about investor protection—it is about protecting a monopoly.

Global Assault on Privacy: The Trend Toward Destroying Communication Secrecy

The UK government is preparing a law that completely bans the use of social media (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube) for citizens under 16. In France and the EU, an initiative is being pushed for mass scanning of personal messages on smartphones before they are sent. This is a global trend: under the pretext of fighting terrorism or protecting children, governments are forcing citizens to give up the basic right to privacy. As Pavel Durov rightly noted, a forced abandonment of end-to-end encryption will not stop real criminals—they will simply create their own closed applications. Ultimately, ordinary law-abiding citizens will be affected, and weakening encryption will make corporate networks of banks and funds vulnerable to hacker attacks. To maintain privacy, users will have to switch to decentralized services.

My verdict: This week shows that the crypto industry is undergoing a fundamental transformation. SBF is trying to rise from the ashes, but his ambitions are merely an illusion. Tether demonstrates how to play by the rules without submitting to them. The US is abandoning CBDCs, paving the way for stablecoins. And the burst meme-coin bubble reminds us: hype is not a strategy. The market is moving toward maturity, and those who do not adapt will be left behind.