A $100 million prison startup, Tether's revolt against MiCA, and the CBDC ban: how SBF and stablecoins are reshaping the crypto world
This week, the crypto industry once again demonstrates its paradoxical nature: the founder of the collapsed FTX exchange is planning a $100 million startup from prison, the largest stablecoin issuer has found a way to bypass European regulations, and the US has officially exited the CBDC race. Let's break down the key events that will determine the market's development trajectory for years to come.
SBF's Ambitions: Genius or Madman?
Sam Bankman-Fried, serving a 25-year sentence for defrauding FTX client funds, is not wasting time. According to prison sources, he is already discussing the launch of a new crypto project requiring $50-100 million in startup capital. Moreover, SBF has appealed to Donald Trump for a presidential pardon, and his parents have hired expensive lobbyists. Meanwhile, information has surfaced about FTX's venture investments, including stakes in SpaceX, Anthropic, and Solana, which were worth $114 billion at their peak but were liquidated by bankruptcy administrators for a pittance. Despite obvious investment talent, trust in SBF has been so severely damaged that even the most brilliant project is unlikely to restore his reputation.
Tether vs. MiCA: A Clever Workaround
The European ESMA has given crypto platforms until July 1, 2025, to obtain licenses under the MiCA regulation. Tether, however, has demonstratively refused this procedure, calling the requirement to hold 60% of reserves in European banks "risky for financial stability." Instead, the company has chosen a strategy of indirect presence: investing in partners who already hold licenses and launching fully legitimate stablecoins through them. This will allow Tether to maintain its share of the European market without directly submitting to local regulators. A forced delisting of USDT, if it does occur, would hit professional participants: market makers would have to split liquidity pools, complicating arbitrage and widening spreads.
US Exits the CBDC Race
American lawmakers have embedded a ban on issuing a digital dollar (CBDC) into the affordable housing bill. The provision prohibiting the Fed from issuing a CBDC until 2030 was "packaged" into a broader document, allowing it to bypass opposition. Congressmen's main fears are total transaction surveillance, spending control (as in the digital yuan), and the displacement of commercial banks. Private stablecoins, however, remain outside the ban. This means the world's largest economy is officially withdrawing from the global CBDC race, and stablecoins are becoming the de facto alternative that the state is willing to tolerate.
Memecoins: The Bubble Has Burst
Revenue on the Pump.fun platform, which allowed token issuance for a few dollars, has plummeted by over 70%. Nearly 96% of traders either lost money or earned less than $500. To prevent a collapse, developers announced the burning of $370 million worth of tokens. This is a symptom of a massive capital redistribution: investors are pulling liquidity out of "gambling" and returning funds to traditional finance. The practice of buying assets without fundamental value has stopped working, and the market is gradually returning to basic rules—seeking digital assets with real-world applications.
CME Group Defends Its Monopoly
The operator of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group, is suing the CFTC regulator over permission granted to the Kalshi platform to launch perpetual futures. Formally, CME cites investor protection and the Dodd-Frank Act, but in reality, it is defending its monopoly on benchmarks. A similar pattern is observed with ICE, demanding "equal rules" due to the growth of the Hyperliquid platform. This is a classic example of traditional players using regulatory mechanisms to suppress competition.
Total Surveillance: A New Trend
The UK is preparing a law banning social media for citizens under 16, while France and the EU are pushing for mass scanning of personal messages. As Pavel Durov rightly noted, embedding backdoors will not stop criminals—they will write their own closed applications. Ordinary citizens will be the ones affected, and weakening encryption will make corporate networks of banks and funds vulnerable to hackers. The only way to preserve privacy is to switch to decentralized services.
My expert conclusion: The crypto industry is entering a phase of maturity where regulatory pressure and monopolization are becoming the main challenges. Tether and SBF show that even under strict constraints, loopholes can be found, but this requires not only financial power but also the ability to play by new rules. The memecoin market has collapsed, and now investors will have to seek real value—or retreat into the shadows.