While most market participants were resting, several landmark events occurred in the industry. The Ethereum Foundation presented an ambitious plan to protect the network from quantum threats, analysts recorded an alarming level of tax evasion, and the Liquid federation managed to recover a significant portion of assets after a recent incident.
Market in correction phase: BTC and ETH lose ground
Bitcoin (BTC) traded near the $78,409 mark by the morning of September 8, showing a decline of 1.61% over the day. During the day, the price fluctuated between $79,700 and $78,300, indicating sustained selling pressure. Ether (ETH) also failed to hold its positions, dropping 1.42% to $2,467, with an intraday high of $2,512.
Among the top-25 cryptocurrencies, a downward trend prevailed. The biggest losses were suffered by Zcash (ZEC) — down 6.77%, Canton (CC) — down 4.94%, and Hyperliquid (HYPE) — down 3.31%. The privacy coin Monero (XMR) also came under pressure, losing 2.94%. At the same time, certain assets showed resilience: Chainlink (LINK) rose 6.14%, Avalanche (AVAX) gained 1.75%, and Sui (SUI) strengthened by 1.33%.
Among the top-100 assets, the best result was posted by the Aerodrome Finance (AERO) token with a gain of 15.38%. Notably, spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded an inflow of $174.6 million, while Ethereum-based products attracted $26.46 million. The only laggards were Solana funds, which lost $5.21 million.
Ethereum: roadmap to 2029
The Protocol Cluster division at the Ethereum Foundation published the results of an evaluation of 62 network improvement proposals (EIPs) for the Hegotá upgrade. EIP-7805 (FOCIL) — a mechanism to protect against transaction censorship — and EIP-8141 (Frame Transactions), which will be key to account abstraction, were placed in the "mandatory for implementation" category. Another 15 proposals received "likely to be included in the upgrade" status, while 28 were rejected.
Particular attention is drawn to the developers' strategic goal: by December, they intend to make all three layers of Ethereum L1 — execution, consensus, and data — resistant to quantum attacks. This is an extremely timely step, given the rapid development of quantum computing.
Tax risks and Liquid recovery
Chainalysis analysts presented an estimate according to which more than 90% of digital asset holders in some countries evade cryptocurrency taxation. The problem is especially acute in France, where the volume of potentially taxable transactions in 2025 is estimated at $9.4 billion. At the same time, only about 24,000 taxpayers declared capital gains of €368 million for 2024.
Meanwhile, the Liquid federation reported the recovery of 3,400 BTC out of approximately 4,000 coins withdrawn on September 6. The funds were returned after confirmation that patches had been installed on the affected bridge nodes. Approximately 598 BTC remain unrecovered, and negotiations with the so-called "ethical hackers" are ongoing. Network operations remain suspended for now, and users are advised not to send bitcoins to peg addresses until the restart is announced.
My take: the Ethereum Foundation's decision to focus on quantum resistance is not just a technical upgrade but a strategic necessity. Investors who ignore this development vector risk being caught off guard. As for Liquid, the return of funds is a positive signal, but it underscores the fragility of trust in bridge solutions within the Bitcoin ecosystem.