The past week was rich in events that could determine the market's development trajectory for months ahead. Key themes included bitcoin's reaction to Fed rhetoric, a historic experiment in quantum protection on the first cryptocurrency's network, and an important Solana decision to reduce inflation.
Market balances between fear and hope
The first cryptocurrency made a bold attempt to storm the $81,000 level, reaching $81,354 on Binance. However, Friday's speech by Fed Chair Kevin Warsh cooled the bulls' fervor. Confirming commitment to the 2% inflation target and noting that summer data does not indicate a sustained improvement in the trend, he triggered a sharp drop in BTC below $76,000. The market instantly revised expectations: the probability of a rate hike at the September meeting jumped from 35.4% to 57%.
At the time of writing this review, bitcoin has recovered to $79,000, showing a weekly gain of about 2%. Notably, against this backdrop, Solana demonstrated impressive momentum (+12.4%), while XRP corrected by 7.5% to $1.4.
Institutional demand remains uneven. Inflows into spot bitcoin ETFs slowed to $934.5 million versus $1.92 billion a week earlier, and Friday saw an outflow of $202 million, breaking a nine-day streak of inflows. At the same time, Ethereum funds attracted $824.4 million, strengthening the position of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. The fear and greed index, adjusting from a local high of 74 points to 69, still indicates extreme greed.
Quantum frontier: StarkWare makes history
On August 26, StarkWare accomplished what recently seemed like science fiction—conducting the first transaction on the bitcoin mainnet resistant to attacks from quantum computers. The experiment, implemented under the Quantum Safe Bitcoin (QSB) scheme, required no changes to consensus rules. The method is based on signature grinding and hash functions considered invulnerable to quantum threats.
It is important to understand the limitations: the technology is still expensive and slow—preparing a single operation takes hours and costs hundreds of dollars. Moreover, QSB does not protect the entire network but only allows moving individual coins to a special protected output. This is more of a safety net mechanism for emergency migration than a full-fledged solution.
Solana accelerates disinflation
The Solana community approved proposal SGP-0002, which doubles the annual rate of inflation reduction—from 15% to 30%. Now the target level of 1.5% will be reached in 2.8 years instead of 5.7. This will reduce issuance by approximately 18.9 million SOL over six years. However, there is a flip side to the coin: nominal staking yield will decline from 5.84% to 4.34% in the first year. This is a deliberate trade-off between the asset's long-term value and short-term attractiveness for validators.
My comment: Solana's decision is a bold but logical step in an environment where the market demands greater economic discipline from projects. Accelerated disinflation could strengthen SOL's position as a safe-haven asset, but investors should reconsider their staking yield models. As for StarkWare's quantum transaction, this is not just a technical curiosity but an important signal of the industry's maturity, which is beginning to prepare for the challenges of the next decade today.