Crypto news

The past week was truly eventful: the Bitcoin network experienced a split due to a soft fork, the largest crypto exchange sued an entire state, and the U.S. Senate postponed a fateful vote. I break down the key events from a market analyst's perspective.

Bitcoin recovered to $65,000

The week began with a continuation of the correction: on August 4, the leading cryptocurrency fell below $63,000. However, the asset then consolidated in the $62,000-$63,000 range, and on-chain data confirmed the prolonged nature of the decline—Glassnode recorded a record-long capitulation phase.

The turning point came thanks to institutional flows. Spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $853 million, and CryptoQuant analysts noted accumulation of BTC, Ethereum, and XRP by large holders: wallets with balances from 10 to 10,000 BTC have acquired over 20,000 coins since July 29. Ether funds also showed positive dynamics, receiving $244 million—the best weekly inflow since mid-April.

By the end of the week, Bitcoin rose 3.4% to $65,200, Ethereum gained 3.7%, and the Hyperliquid token surged more than 6%. Market capitalization increased from $2.16 trillion to $2.22 trillion, while BTC dominance grew from 58.5% to 59.3%. At the same time, the fear and greed index remains in the "fear" zone at 31 points—the market is still far from euphoria.

Bitcoin network split due to BIP-110

On August 8, the leading cryptocurrency's network split at block #961,632: nodes supporting BIP-110 refused to accept blocks without a signal of support for the proposal. Competing blocks at the same height were created by AntPool (without the signal) and the Ocean pool via the Roughnecks alliance. The separated branch mined only two blocks in eight hours versus 48 for the main network—mining difficulty makes its catch-up trajectory practically impossible.

Support for the proposal was initially lacking: two weeks before the soft fork, only 2.53% of blocks signaled it, with 55% required. Developer Kevin Loake warned of the risk of losing real bitcoins: both branches accept identical transactions, so a signed transfer could be intercepted by an attacker and sent to the main network.

Strategy sells Bitcoin, while BitMine accumulates Ethereum

Strategy sold 1,638 BTC between July 27 and August 2 for $104.7 million at an average price of $63,957, directing the funds to dividends and a share buyback of STRC. Its Bitcoin reserve decreased to 842,138 BTC, and the unrealized loss reached $10.9 billion at current prices. The sales are enshrined in a capital management framework program with a $5 billion sales limit.

BitMine Immersion Technologies' strategy looks contrasting: over the same week, it purchased 10,399 ETH, bringing its reserve to 5.7 million coins—4.8% of all Ethereum in circulation. The company's total assets are estimated at $11.3 billion. A telling example of diverging corporate strategies in the market.

Coldcard hack escalated into a large-scale infrastructure review

The theft of assets from Coldcard hardware wallets that began on July 30 turned into a total audit of Bitcoin infrastructure over the week. Losses from three confirmed waves of attacks were estimated by Galaxy Research at $100 million, and with a suspected fourth wave, the total could reach $130 million. At least 15 different attackers exploited the vulnerability.

The incident did not trigger a mass sell-off: holders moved funds to new addresses rather than to exchanges. However, it exposed systemic audit problems: Kraken's security chief pointed to a gap in cold storage testing, and Ledger's CTO noted that the error had sat in a public repository for more than five years.

The volunteer group Bitcoin Red Team launched an AI-powered review of codebases: in 27.5 hours, 4,962 reports were submitted across 390 projects, and by August 8, the scale had grown to 7,958 reports across 501 protocols. One of the discovered issues turned into a new incident—attackers drained Lightning Network nodes running through BTCPay.

Bybit vs. North Korea: an unprecedented lawsuit

Crypto exchange Bybit filed a civil lawsuit against North Korea, its intelligence agency, and the Lazarus Group over the theft of $1.5 billion in February 2025. Documents were submitted to the federal court for the District of Columbia on June 18 under seal and have only now been unsealed. The platform demands the return of the stolen funds, approximately $1.5 billion in compensation, and treble damages.

Only 5.3% of the funds have been traced—90.2% of the stolen assets passed through mixers and cross-chain bridges. Researcher Vangelis Stykas found traces of North Korean hackers in the systems of 1,640 organizations across 57 countries. Groups linked to North Korea account for over 70% of the global volume of digital asset theft—this has become an independent revenue stream for Pyongyang.

CLARITY Act: vote postponed

The U.S. Senate declined to hold a procedural vote on the crypto market structure bill until after the August recess. To overcome the 60-vote threshold, Republicans need support from at least seven Democrats, but part of their own faction objects to stablecoin yields. The key unresolved issue remains the ethics block requiring the president to divest stakes in crypto businesses—this would allow Trump to defer tax payments for years.

The first procedural vote is scheduled for September 15. Traders on Polymarket put the odds of the document passing by the end of December at 21%—up from 14% last week.

Miners in losses and the fight for energy

MARA Holdings ended the second quarter with a net loss of $611.3 million, while CleanSpark posted a $239.8 million loss versus $257.4 million in profit a year earlier. The average Bitcoin price for the quarter was 28% lower than last year. The industry has intensified its fight for capacity: Fortitude Mining acquired a site in Nebraska, MARA invested up to $600 million in Texas, and Hut 8 leased an AI campus for $9.8 billion.

Competition came from AI developers: SpaceX and Tesla are investing $16.8 billion in a chip plant in Texas, and Amazon is participating in a 7.65 GW gas station project. The state governor suspended data center grid connections—there are over 1,800 applications for 474 GW in the queue. According to Bernstein, the moratorium will hit speculative projects, while the value of sites with approved energy contracts will rise.

My conclusion: the week showed that the market is in a turning phase—institutional flows are lifting the price, but structural risks (forks, hacks, regulatory uncertainty) remain high. The network split due to BIP-110 is a reminder that decentralization has its price, and Bybit's lawsuit against North Korea could set a precedent for the entire industry in combating state-sponsored cyber extortion.