Night crypto market digest: Anthropic and Riot deal, Hayes forecast, and new BlackRock rules
Key events overnight: Anthropic formed a strategic alliance with miner Riot worth $9.1 billion, Arthur Hayes sees a bullish scenario for bitcoin in a strengthening yen, and BlackRock radically lowered the entry threshold for its bitcoin ETF.
Market dynamics: calm before the storm?
Bitcoin (BTC) was trading around $63,980 by 08:40 Moscow time. During the night on the 15-minute chart, quotes made limited moves: a pullback to $63,800 was followed by a rise to $64,100, after which the asset stabilized near the $64,000 mark. Ethereum (ETH) showed a similar picture, holding in a narrow range of $1,868–$1,880, with most trading near $1,874.
Altcoins in the top 10 showed minimal volatility. The growth leader was Hyperliquid (HYPE) with a gain of 2.12%, followed by Solana (SOL) at +1.04%. BNB, on the other hand, corrected by 0.52%. Among the top 100 assets, Curve DAO Token (CRV) stood out, rising by 10.8%, as well as Internet Computer (ICP) and Lighter (LIT) with gains of 7.84% and 6.62%, respectively.
The outsider of the day was the Audiera (BEAT) token, which collapsed by 51.2%. Canton (CC) and Cardano (ADA) also suffered significant losses, declining by 6.25% and 4.94%.
Flows into spot ETFs were mixed. Bitcoin funds recorded an outflow of $144.67 million, while Ethereum products lost $14.59 million. At the same time, investors showed interest in Solana ETFs, with inflows of $8.83 million, and HYPE funds received $2.74 million.
Over the past 24 hours, exchanges liquidated positions of 68,722 traders totaling $201.08 million. The largest liquidation order was executed on Hyperliquid for a BRENTOIL oil contract — $10.55 million.
Corporate and macroeconomic drivers
Anthropic, the developer of the AI model Claude, signed a 20-year contract with bitcoin miner Riot Platforms worth $9.1 billion. Under the deal, Anthropic will receive 191 MW of computing capacity at Riot's site in Rockdale, Texas. Full deployment of capacity is planned by June 2028. Two five-year extension options could increase the total contract value to $16.1 billion. This is a vivid example of how AI developers are actively reserving energy infrastructure, which in the long term could change the economics of mining.
BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes presented an unconventional scenario for a stronger yen, which he considers bullish for the crypto market. In his view, Japan could use the Fed's FIMA repo facility: pledge US Treasury bonds in exchange for dollars, then sell them to buy yen. If the $60 billion counterparty limit is raised, the Fed's balance sheet would grow, as the Japanese government and the GPIF fund hold about $1.37 trillion in such bonds. Hayes considers the resulting dollar liquidity a positive factor for bitcoin, gold, and Ethereum.
BlackRock managing director Robert Mitchnick announced a reduction in the minimum threshold for in-kind operations in the IBIT bitcoin ETF from $25 million to $1 million. Now, an investor with $1 million in bitcoin will be able to convert them into fund shares through authorized participants. Separately, Mitchnick spoke about the BITA fund, which targets returns of 15–19% in exchange for lower volatility and limited bitcoin upside potential.
My view: The Anthropic and Riot deal is not just a contract but a signal of convergence between AI and crypto infrastructure. Miners are becoming key energy suppliers for data centers, which could support their market capitalization. As for Hayes's forecast, the FIMA repo idea looks exotic, but in a world where central banks seek unconventional tools, such a scenario should not be dismissed. BlackRock's threshold reduction is an obvious step toward democratizing ETF access, which will increase institutional capital inflows in the medium term.