The outgoing week was eventful and in many ways telling. We witnessed not just a market correction, but a fundamental shift in the strategy of the largest miners, who are massively pivoting from Bitcoin mining to infrastructure for artificial intelligence. In parallel, AI technologies are being increasingly used in cyberattacks, and regulatory pressure in Russia is beginning to take quite concrete shape.
Bitcoin Pulls Back to August Lows
The optimism of the start of the month has faded. On August 14, the leading cryptocurrency broke below the $63,000 mark, returning to early August levels. The week closed with a decline of 3.3%, and at the time of writing, the asset is still trading near this key zone. This looks like a disappointment after closing the previous week at $65,200.
Interestingly, just a few days before the drop, analysts were giving opposite signals. CryptoQuant spoke of resistance at $67,000 and $72,000, while BlackRock claimed a shift in investor sentiment. However, reality turned out to be more mundane. Glassnode specialists accurately described the situation, calling the market "compressed": the price is squeezed between the median realized price of $63,000 and the cost basis of short-term holders at $68,700. The breakout of the lower boundary, which we saw, opens a direct path to $58,500.
The pressure on the market was comprehensive. Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded their largest weekly outflow since early July, totaling $398.7 million. Ether also failed to hold, losing 2.1% and dropping to $1,880. Against this backdrop, only Hyperliquid's HYPE token showed solid growth of nearly 4.7%. The Fear and Greed Index froze in the "fear" zone at 34 points, and the total market capitalization fell from $2.22 trillion to $2.17 trillion.
AI Fever: Miners Sell Bitcoins to Build Data Centers
The key trend of the week is not just an asset sell-off, but a deliberate strategy to change the business model. Miners are no longer trying to save their balance sheets from falling profitability; they are purposefully reinvesting in AI infrastructure. This is most vividly seen in the case of former Bitfarms, now called Keel Infrastructure. The company has completely decommissioned all its mining capacity in the US, preparing sites for high-performance computing data centers.
Riot Platforms went through the entire journey in a few days: signed a 20-year contract with Anthropic worth $9.1 billion, sold 4,300 BTC, and raised up to $573 million to build an AI campus in Texas. The scale is staggering. MARA sold 23,093 BTC in the first half of the year for approximately $1.6 billion, explaining this as financing operations and supporting growth. They were joined by Hyperscale Data, which sold 685 BTC for $43 million.
The economics here are ironclad: fee income has fallen to a decade low, and the hashrate of public companies has declined by 21.2% over three quarters. This is not panic; it is pragmatic calculation.
AI on Both Sides of the Barricades
While some companies build AI businesses, hackers are actively using neural networks for attacks. Notably, defenders face limitations: Bitcoin Red Team lost access to OpenAI and was forced to return to Chinese models. Attackers, apparently, have no such problems. South Korean analysts reported that the North Korea-linked group Kimsuky uses local AI systems to attack crypto companies. Taiwanese government agencies also revealed details of a hack using AI agents.
The Boltz case looks particularly alarming. The creators of the non-custodial Bitcoin service handed the project to a group of "veterans" after a series of attacks that were presumably carried out using neural networks. Separately, I note Anthropic's research, which identified problems with trust, lying, and even collusion among AI agent groups. This is a signal that future cyberattacks could be not just automated, but self-organizing.
Russian Regulatory Blitz
Moscow security forces conducted mass searches at "Gorbushka" in connection with a case involving crypto exchangers. This coincided with stricter banking compliance: major banks began requesting explanations from legal entities regarding USDT transactions, demanding confirmation that the counterparty is included in the Central Bank's register of digital currency exchange operators. The problem is that such a register does not yet exist — it is only planned to be created in the fall. Banks are essentially insuring themselves against future inspections, acting in the logic of Federal Law 115-FZ.
The uncertainty will not last long — the law "On Digital Currency and Digital Rights" comes into force as early as September 1. And the State Duma is considering a bill on criminal liability for illegal cryptocurrency circulation with confiscation. This is a clear signal to the market: gray schemes will be burned out with a hot iron.
Institutionals and Legislation
Against this backdrop, it is pleasant to see that institutional adoption continues. Israel's largest bank, Bank Leumi, is launching trading in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana through a partnership with Galaxy Digital. Norway's sovereign wealth fund disclosed a stake in BitMine worth $81.9 million. However, there is a downside: Strategy and Metaplanet may be excluded from MSCI indices, which could trigger pressure from index funds.
The legislative track in the US, on the contrary, is stalling. Galaxy Digital estimates the probability of the Clarity Act passing at just 10%. The market seems to be starting to price in this risk.
My view: The current week showed that the industry is going through a bifurcation point. Miners are no longer "bulls" in the pure sense — they are becoming infrastructure players for whom Bitcoin is just one source of income. This reduces sell pressure in the long term but creates volatility now. As for the activation of AI in cyberattacks — this is a new level of threat that the industry is not yet ready for. Regulators should think not only about controlling fiat bridges but also about cybersecurity at the new technological stage.