Crypto news

The outgoing week was rich in events that will determine the market's trajectory for months to come. We are witnessing not just a correction, but a structural shift: miners are massively changing their business profiles, artificial intelligence is becoming a battlefield for cybercriminals, and regulators on both sides of the ocean are tightening their grip. Let's break down the key trends.

Bitcoin Pulled Back to August Lows

July's optimism has evaporated. On August 14, the leading cryptocurrency broke below the $63,000 mark, returning to early-month levels and completely erasing the weekly gain that had ended at $65,200. At the start of the week, analysts, including experts from CryptoQuant, pointed to resistance in the $67,000 and $72,000 zones, calculated based on the realized price of short-term holders. BlackRock even spoke of a shift in investor sentiment and a desynchronization from the stock market.

However, reality turned out to be more prosaic. Specialists at Glassnode characterized the market as "compressed," squeezed between the median realized price of $63,000 and the cost basis of short-term holders at $68,700. A break below the lower boundary of this range, which we indeed saw, opens a direct path to the next support level around $58,500. At the time of writing this review, bitcoin is consolidating near the $63,000 mark, having lost 3.3% over seven days.

Ether also failed to hold its ground, declining 2.1% to $1,880. The only exception was the HYPE token from the Hyperliquid exchange, which gained nearly 4.7%. The total market capitalization slipped from $2.22 trillion to $2.17 trillion, and the fear and greed index froze in the "fear" zone at 34 points.

Institutional investors are voting with their money: spot bitcoin ETFs recorded their largest weekly outflow since early July, totaling $398.7 million. Ether funds also showed negative dynamics, losing $2.2 million after a substantial inflow the week prior. This is a clear signal of cooling risk appetite among large capital.

The Great Miner Exodus: Selling Bitcoin for an AI Future

The most significant trend of the week is the transformation of public miners' businesses. Selling mined coins is no longer an anti-crisis measure to cover operating expenses. It is a deliberate strategy to finance the transition into high-yield AI infrastructure.

Keel Infrastructure (formerly Bitfarms) has radically decommissioned all its mining capacity in the US, preparing sites for AI-focused data centers. Riot Platforms executed a lightning-fast series of deals: signed a 20-year contract worth $9.1 billion with a leading AI lab (according to my data, this is Anthropic), sold 4,300 BTC, and raised up to $573 million for the construction of an AI campus in Texas.

The scale of the process is impressive. MARA (formerly Marathon Digital) sold 23,093 BTC in the first half of the year for approximately $1.6 billion, citing the financing of operations and liquidity management. Hyperscale Data also joined the list, selling 685 BTC for $43 million.

The economics of mining have indeed become unbearable. Miners' revenue from fees has fallen to a ten-year low, and the realized hashrate of public companies has dropped by 21.2% over three quarters. It is obvious that without diversification into high-performance computing, survival in the current cycle is becoming nearly impossible.

AI as a Weapon: Next-Generation Cyberattacks

Artificial intelligence has become a working tool on both sides of the barricades. Defenders face limitations: the CEO of AnchorWatch reported that his Bitcoin Red Team lost access to OpenAI's capabilities under the cybersecurity program, being forced to return to Chinese models.

Attackers, on the other hand, are not constrained by anything. South Korean analysts have found that the North Korea-linked group Kimsuky is actively using local AI systems to attack cryptocurrency companies. Taiwanese government agencies have also revealed details of a hack using AI agents.

Particularly alarming is the incident with the non-custodial service Boltz, whose founders handed the project over to "bitcoin veterans" after a series of attacks allegedly carried out using neural networks. Meanwhile, the July campaign against Coldcard hardware wallets has concluded: according to Galaxy Research estimates, attackers stole at least 1,778.84 BTC ($112.7 million), and no new cases have been recorded since August 6.

Wallet manufacturers are also suffering reputational losses. Trezor reported a data leak affecting 13,689 users through a breach of a logistics partner, and SafePal reported the compromise of information for about 40,000 users. Notably, the model developers themselves, including Anthropic, have found that groups of AI agents exhibit issues with trust, lying, and even collusion. This calls into question the security of multi-agent systems in principle.

Russia: Pressure on Crypto Exchanges and a New Law

In Moscow, law enforcement conducted mass searches at the "Gorbushka" shopping center in connection with a case involving crypto exchangers. This coincided with stricter banking compliance: major banks began requesting explanations from corporate clients 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 planned to be created in the fall.

Crypto expert Viktor Pershikov links the checks to the logic of banks' self-insurance and the initiative of Rosfinmonitoring, seeing no legal risks under Federal Law 115-FZ. However, the uncertainty will not last long: the law "On Digital Currency and Digital Rights" comes into force on September 1, and the State Duma is considering a bill on criminal liability for the illegal circulation of cryptocurrencies with confiscation.

Institutions and Legislation

Israel's largest bank announced a partnership with Galaxy Digital for trading bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. Norway's sovereign wealth fund disclosed a stake in BitMine worth $81.9 million. At the same time, the bitcoin treasuries of Strategy and Metaplanet risk being excluded from MSCI indices.

The legislative track in the US has slowed: the probability of passing the Clarity Act is estimated at only 10%, and the Senate postponed the vote to September 15. This is a disappointing signal for a market expecting regulatory clarity.

My Take on the Situation

We are on the brink of a fundamental restructuring of the industry. The mass exodus of miners into AI not only reduces bitcoin supply (which could become a bullish factor in the long term) but also creates new risks of centralizing computing power. In parallel, the use of AI in cyberattacks requires the industry to rethink its security approaches—old defense methods no longer work. The market is entering a phase of heightened volatility, where the key level for bitcoin will be the $58,500 mark. A break below this level would open the door to a deeper correction, while holding it would provide a chance for recovery toward $67,000.