Weekly roundup: miners sacrifice bitcoin for AI, and neural networks become hackers' weapon
The outgoing week was marked by several tectonic shifts at once. While bitcoin pulled back to monthly lows, public miners staged a large-scale sell-off of mined coins to finance the transition to AI infrastructure. In parallel, artificial intelligence has finally cemented its place in the arsenal of cybercriminals, while Russian security forces conducted demonstrative raids at the capital's "Gorbushka" market.
Bitcoin: the bounce fizzled out
July's optimism gave way to disappointment. On August 14, the leading cryptocurrency fell below the $63,000 mark, returning to early-month levels and erasing all of the previous week's gains. At the start of the seven-day period, analysts were still building bullish scenarios, pointing to resistance in the $67,000 and $72,000 zones, while BlackRock spoke of a shift in investor sentiment. However, the market ruled otherwise.
Glassnode specialists described the situation as "compressed": the price is stuck in a narrow corridor between the median realized price ($63,000) and the short-term holders' cost basis ($68,700). A break of the lower bound, in their view, opens a direct path to $58,500. Over the week, the asset lost 3.3%, settling near the $63,000 mark. Ethereum slipped 2.1% to $1,880, and the only notable exception in the top was the Hyperliquid token, which gained nearly 4.7%.
Institutional demand is also showing signs of cooling. Spot bitcoin ETFs recorded their largest weekly outflow since early July at $398.7 million, while ether funds lost $2.2 million after a hefty inflow the week prior. The fear and greed index stalled in the "fear" zone at 34 points, and the total market capitalization shrank from $2.22 trillion to $2.17 trillion.
Miners: selling for the future
The bitcoin sell-off by miners is no longer a survival measure. It is a deliberate strategy of pivoting to the AI sector. This week, four companies at once directed the proceeds toward building data centers rather than covering operating expenses.
The transformation of former Bitfarms, now Keel Infrastructure, is telling: it fully decommissioned its mining capacity in the US, preparing sites for AI workloads. Riot Platforms went through the entire cycle in a matter of days: signed a 20-year, $9.1 billion contract with a leading AI lab, sold 4,300 BTC, and raised up to $573 million for building an AI campus in Texas. MARA's scale is staggering: over six months, the company sold 23,093 BTC for approximately $1.6 billion.
The economics of mining are indeed pushing toward such a pivot. Miners' revenue from fees has fallen to a decade low, and the realized hash rate of public companies has dropped 21.2% over three quarters. This is not panic but cold calculation: AI infrastructure promises more stable and higher margins than volatile mining.
AI at war: attacks and defense
Neural networks have finally become a tool for both attackers and defenders. The situation with Bitcoin Red Team is telling: volunteers testing infrastructure lost access to OpenAI tools, but this did not stop the malicious actors. South Korean analysts linked the Kimsuky group, which uses local AI systems to attack crypto companies, to North Korea. Taiwanese government agencies also revealed details of a hack using AI agents, while the creators of the bitcoin service Boltz handed the project over to "veterans" after a series of similar attacks.
Wallet manufacturers are also suffering reputational damage. Trezor reported a data leak affecting nearly 14,000 users through a breach of a logistics partner, while SafePal faced the compromise of information on about 40,000 clients. Notably, Anthropic researchers found that groups of AI agents exhibit issues with trust, lying, and collusion — model behavior changes radically when working in a group.
Russia: pressure on exchangers and a new reality
On the evening of August 13, Moscow security forces conducted mass raids at the "Gorbushka" shopping center in a case involving crypto exchangers. This coincided with tighter bank compliance: major banks began demanding explanations from legal entities regarding USDT transactions, citing a non-existent registry of exchange operators from the Central Bank. Credit institutions are hedging themselves by shifting risks onto clients, but the situation will become clearer on September 1, when the law "On Digital Currency and Digital Rights" takes effect.
Institutions and regulation
Israel's largest bank announced a partnership with Galaxy Digital for cryptocurrency trading, while Norway's sovereign wealth fund disclosed a stake in BitMine worth $81.9 million. However, bitcoin treasuries risk losing their place in MSCI indices, and analysts estimate the likelihood of the Clarity Act passing at just 10%.
My comment: The current week clearly marked a watershed: miners are voting with their wallets for AI, while institutions are voting for targeted rather than mass investments. The market is in a consolidation phase, and a break of the $63,000 level will be a key signal for determining the medium-term trend.