Tether reserves, USDT freezes in Russia, and Solana's fragility: key events of the week in the crypto industry
This week, I have highlighted five key events that will determine the further trajectory of the market: pressure from Russian banks on crypto companies, the historic audit of Tether, a critical vulnerability in Solana, a paradigm shift in the AI industry, and the existential crisis of bitcoin as an asset.
Russian banks tighten compliance for crypto businesses
Financial institutions in the Russian Federation have begun requiring companies working with USDT to confirm inclusion in the Central Bank registry, which in fact does not yet exist. This is a direct reaction to de-risking ahead of September 1, when cryptocurrency settlements for foreign economic activity will move from the experimental phase to permanent practice. Businesses will face an unprecedented level of bureaucratic burden, rising costs, and the risk of legal liability for illegal exchange operations.
In my assessment, the market is entering a transition period earlier than the official deadlines. The key task now is to transform chaotic manual checks into a clear, transparent procedure; otherwise, legal crypto turnover in the Russian Federation may simply come to a halt.
Tether: first full audit and excess reserves
The issuer of the largest stablecoin has for the first time undergone a full independent audit by KPMG US, receiving an unqualified opinion on the compliance of its 2025 financial statements with US standards. Auditors not only checked the balance sheet but also physically counted the gold reserves. The company's total assets exceeded liabilities by $6.81 billion, which is a powerful signal for the market.
It is important to understand: this is not a perpetual guarantee, but a precedent has been set. Now all major stablecoin issuers will be forced to follow this standard of transparency, or they will lose the trust of institutional investors.
Solana: on the brink of a halt due to a provider outage
The Solana blockchain came within a step of a complete halt after a routing failure at provider TeraSwitch. Validators controlling 28.83% of staked SOL went offline simultaneously, bringing the network close to the critical threshold of 33.34%, after which transactions cease to finalize. The issue was resolved in 33 minutes, but the incident exposed a fundamental problem—excessive centralization of infrastructure.
For institutional investors, this is a wake-up call: a network claiming to be a financial backbone cannot depend on a single provider.
AI industry: the battle for infrastructure, not algorithms
The potential acquisition of startup Decart by Anthropic for $6 billion and personnel changes at Google have exposed the sector's main problem—the colossal cost of maintaining models. Competition is shifting from algorithm development to the fight for GPUs and inference optimization technologies.
My forecast: in the coming years, the barrier to entry in AI will become insurmountable for new players. Only those capable of effectively managing product economics at scale will win.
Bitcoin: identity crisis amid falling miner revenues
The first cryptocurrency is experiencing a deep existential crisis. Miner revenues from fees have fallen to a historic low of 0.69%, and the hash rate has collapsed due to competition with AI for energy resources. Meanwhile, funds like BlackRock are actively buying the asset, but bitcoin has lost its correlation with stocks and gold, failing to live up to its status as a "safe haven."
Bitcoin has already outgrown its status as a speculative instrument, but it has not yet found its real macroeconomic role. This is a transitional stage that will determine its place in the global financial system for decades to come.