Nightly crypto market news: Chainalysis vs. US authorities, Stripe acquires OpenRouter, and criticism of Pump.fun
While the market consolidated near key levels, several events occurred in the industry that could shift the balance of power. Analytics firm Chainalysis has entered a legal conflict with the U.S. government, Stripe is preparing a mega-deal in the AI sector, and the founder of Curve Finance has lashed out at Pump.fun and Phantom.
Market: Bitcoin holds $63,000, altcoins move in divergent directions
As of 08:35 Moscow time, bitcoin (BTC) was trading near the $63,389 mark. During the night on the 15-minute chart, quotes showed an upward trend, rising from $62,650 to $63,500. Over the past week, the leading cryptocurrency has lost about 2.49% of its value.
Ethereum (ETH) consolidated near $1,897. Over the week, the asset declined by 1.17%, but overnight it showed a recovery from $1,868 to $1,904, indicating sustained buyer interest at current levels.
Among the top-20 assets by market capitalization, Hyperliquid (HYPE) stood out over the week, gaining 8.69%. Meanwhile, XRP lost 3.07% and Solana (SOL) fell 1.75%. In the top-100, the best result was posted by Velvet (VELVET) with a gain of 116.05%. Ether.fi (ETHFI) and Chainlink (LINK) rose by 30.10% and 14.88%, respectively.
The week's laggard was Uniswap (UNI), which plunged 19.68%. It was followed by Aptos (APT) with a decline of 12.34% and LayerZero (ZRO) with a loss of 10.70%.
Flows into spot crypto ETFs were mixed. Bitcoin funds recorded an outflow of about $389.71 million, while Solana products attracted $10.26 million and Ethereum products $2.26 million. Over the past 24 hours, $114.03 million in positions were liquidated on the derivatives market, affecting 50,362 traders. The largest liquidation order was for the BTCUSDT pair on Binance, totaling $2.98 million.
Chainalysis sues the U.S. government
Chainalysis has initiated a lawsuit against U.S. authorities in the Court of Federal Claims. The essence of the claims is that the Department of Homeland Security and ICE violated standard competitive procedures by awarding an exclusive contract directly to competitor TRM Labs. Chainalysis is seeking to overturn this deal. TRM Labs has joined the case on the side of the government, and the court has imposed a protective order for trade secrets. Oral hearings are scheduled for September 2, 2026.
Stripe acquires OpenRouter for $7 billion
Payment giant Stripe is close to acquiring startup OpenRouter, which positions itself as the "Stripe for the AI world." The deal amount exceeds $7 billion, while in May 2025 the company was valued at $1.3 billion. OpenRouter is developing a unified AI gateway that allows connection to more than 400 models from various developers through a single software interface. About 8 million people use the service. Stripe itself has not commented on the deal, calling it rumors.
Curve founder criticizes Pump.fun and Phantom
Michael Egorov, founder of Curve Finance, called Pump.fun a "casino of fraudulent memecoins" and stated that Phantom's work with hardware wallets falls short of the MetaMask experience. Co-founder of ClawPump under the handle Tomi204 countered that Pump.fun merely provides a service, and responsibility for its use lies with the users themselves. Egorov retorted that software products often lose quality after gaining market recognition.
My take: The Chainalysis lawsuit is a signal of growing tension between analytics firms and government agencies, which could lead to a review of procurement rules in sensitive sectors. The Stripe-OpenRouter deal confirms the trend toward convergence of payment infrastructure and AI, opening new opportunities for crypto payments in this niche. Egorov's criticism of Pump.fun reflects a systemic problem in memecoin platforms, where regulatory risks continue to accumulate.