Weekly roundup: miners are massively pivoting to AI, bitcoin pulled back to $63,000, and hackers have armed themselves with neural networks.
The outgoing week was rich in events: bitcoin lost all of its July optimism, miners are massively converting mined coins into AI infrastructure, and neural networks are becoming a universal tool for both defense and conducting cyberattacks. Plus, Moscow security forces paid a visit to the legendary "Gorbushka".
Bitcoin: The bounce fizzled out
The market turned downward. On August 14, the leading cryptocurrency fell below the $63,000 mark, erasing the gains of the previous week, which had closed at $65,200. At the start of the week, 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, reality turned out to be more prosaic.
Glassnode specialists described the market as "compressed," squeezed between critical levels: the median realized price of $63,000 and the cost basis of short-term holders at $68,700. A break below the lower boundary, according to their calculations, opened a direct path to $58,500. In the end, bitcoin settled right at the lower boundary, losing 3.3% over seven days. Ether fell 2.1% to $1,880, and among major assets, only the Hyperliquid (HYPE) token was in positive territory, gaining nearly 4.7%.
Institutional demand also weakened: spot bitcoin ETFs recorded their largest weekly outflow since early July, totaling $398.7 million. Ether funds lost $2.2 million. The Fear and Greed Index froze in the "fear" zone at 34 points, and the total market capitalization slipped from $2.22 trillion to $2.17 trillion.
Miners: A new business model
The sell-off of bitcoins by miners has ceased to be a forced measure to cover operating expenses. This is a systemic pivot in the business. Four major companies announced this week that they are directing revenue from coin sales toward building AI infrastructure.
Former Bitfarms (now Keel Infrastructure) has completely decommissioned all of its mining sites in the US, preparing them for data centers for AI workloads. Riot Platforms went through the entire cycle in a few days: signed a 20-year lease agreement for capacity worth $9.1 billion, sold 4,300 BTC, and raised up to $573 million for the construction of an AI campus in Texas. MARA sold 23,093 BTC over six months for approximately $1.6 billion, while Hyperscale Data sold 685 BTC for $43 million to fund its own data center.
The economics of mining explain this pivot: miners' revenue from fees has fallen to a ten-year low, and the realized hashrate of public companies has declined by 21.2% over three quarters. This is not panic, but sober calculation — the industry is adapting to a new reality where AI provides a more stable margin than cryptocurrency mining.
Cybersecurity: AI as both weapon and shield
Neural networks are increasingly being used in cyber warfare. Notably, defenders face restrictions, while attackers operate without hesitation. The CEO of AnchorWatch reported that his Bitcoin Red Team team lost access to OpenAI tools, after which they returned to Chinese models.
South Korean analysts found that the North Korea-linked group Kimsuky is using local AI systems to attack crypto companies. Taiwanese government agencies were hacked using AI agents. And the founders of the bitcoin service Boltz handed the project over to "veterans" after a series of attacks, presumably carried out with the help of neural networks.
The campaign against Coldcard hardware wallets has ended: according to Galaxy Research estimates, hackers stole at least 1,778.84 BTC ($112.7 million), and no new incidents have been recorded since August 6. At the same time, manufacturers are also bearing reputational losses: Trezor reported a data leak affecting 13,689 users, and SafePal reported the compromise of information from approximately 40,000 clients.
Regulation in Russia and the world
On the evening of August 13, mass searches were conducted at the Moscow shopping center "Gorbushka" in a case involving crypto exchangers. Pressure on cash exchange has intensified amid stricter banking compliance: major banks have begun requiring legal entities to confirm that their counterparties are included in the Central Bank's register of digital currency exchange operators, which does not yet exist. This is the logic of banks' self-insurance, not a direct instruction from the regulator — the uncertainty will last until the law "On Digital Currency" takes effect on September 1.
On the international stage, institutional players continue to enter the industry: Israel's largest bank will launch cryptocurrency trading through a partnership with Galaxy Digital, and Norway's sovereign wealth fund disclosed a stake in BitMine worth $81.9 million. At the same time, analysts estimate the probability of the Clarity Act being passed at only 10% — the legislative track is clearly stalling.
My comment: The current correction is not panic, but a restructuring of the market structure. Miners selling coins to finance AI data centers are creating strong downward pressure on the price, but at the same time they are laying the foundation for future growth — through diversifying their balance sheets. Once this transition is complete, the supply of bitcoin will become more limited, which, amid a recovery in demand from ETFs, could trigger a sharp upward spike in volatility.