Miners sold billions of dollars’ worth of coins to shift into AI infrastructure, AI models proved useful on both sides of cyberattacks, Moscow law enforcement searched “Gorbushka,” and other stories from the week.
Bitcoin revisits early‑August lows
The week reversed July’s rebound. On August 14, bitcoin fell below $63,000 and returned to early‑month levels, even though the previous week closed at $65,200.
The first days signaled the opposite. On August 10, CryptoQuant contributor ShayanMarkets identified near‑term resistance at $67,000 and $72,000, calculated from the realized price of short‑term holders.
A day later, BlackRock said investor sentiment had reversed over the past month and the asset’s performance had finally diverged from the stock market.
Glassnode analysts described the market as “compressed”: bitcoin’s price is stuck between the median realized price at $63,000 and short‑term holders’ cost basis at $68,700. A break below the lower bound, they said, would open the way to $58,500.
By the end of the week, bitcoin held around $63,000, near where it is trading at press time. The asset fell 3.3% over the past seven days.
A similar picture emerged in Ethereum — the leading altcoin slipped 2.1% to $1,880. Among the largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, only HYPE, the token of the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid, posted gains, rising nearly 4.7%.
Spot bitcoin ETFs saw the largest weekly outflow since early July at $398.7 million.
Ethereum‑based exchange‑traded funds lost $2.2 million versus $244.9 million of inflows a week earlier.
The crypto Fear & Greed Index remains in “fear” territory at 34.
The digital asset market’s capitalization fell from $2.22 trillion to $2.17 trillion. Bitcoin’s dominance was 58.8%, Ethereum’s 10.5%.
Miners fund an AI pivot by selling bitcoin
Selling mined coins is no longer just a crisis measure. Over the week, four companies directed proceeds not to operating expenses but to building infrastructure for artificial intelligence.
Keel Infrastructure — formerly Bitfarms — went the furthest. On August 11, the company took offline all its U.S. mining capacity — the sites are being prepared for data centers for AI workloads and high‑performance computing.
Riot Platforms completed the entire cycle in a few days. On August 11, the company signed a 20‑year capacity lease with a “leading cutting‑edge AI laboratory” worth $9.1 billion — Bloomberg reported the partner was Anthropic. On August 13, the firm sold 4,300 BTC, and on the 15th raised up to $573 million to build an AI campus in Texas.
At the largest U.S. miner, the scale of sales is measured in annual volumes. From January through June, MARA sold 23,093 BTC for about $1.6 billion, citing funding operations, supporting growth, and liquidity management.
On August 15, Hyperscale Data joined the list, selling 685 BTC for $43 million for its own data center.
Mining economics explain the shift — on August 12, miners’ fee revenue fell to a ten‑year low, and the realized hash rate of public companies excluding Bitdeer declined 21.2% over three quarters.
What to discuss with friends?
- Google and OpenAI unveiled ultra‑fast AI solutions
- DeepSeek released an open alternative to Claude Code and the V4 Pro model
- AgiBot overtook Unitree in the global humanoid market
- Suno is introducing limits on music downloads
AI models power both sides of attacks
During the week, volunteers testing bitcoin infrastructure with language models faced restrictions on access to tools.
AnchorWatch CEO Rob Hamilton said that on August 8 he began using OpenAI’s cybersecurity program capabilities in the Bitcoin Red Team’s work, and by the next morning lost access. The team reverted to Chinese models.
Such restrictions do not restrain attackers. On August 10, South Korean analysts at Genians reported that the DPRK‑linked group Kimsuky uses local AI systems to attack cryptocurrency and financial companies.
On August 13, Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs disclosed details of hacks of government institutions carried out using AI agents.
That same day, the founders of the non‑custodial bitcoin service Boltz handed the project over to a group of “bitcoin veterans” after a series of attacks allegedly conducted with the help of AI models.
Meanwhile, the July campaign against hardware wallets has ended. Galaxy Research estimated that at least 1,778.84 BTC ($112.7 million) was stolen from vulnerable Coldcard devices, with no new cases recorded after August 6. The final figure landed in the lower end of the analysts’ earlier $100–$130 million range.
Wallet makers also took reputational hits. On August 13, Trezor reported a personal data breach affecting 13,689 users via a hack of logistics partner ShipMonk. By the end of the week, the SafePal project faced a similar situation — the team said information on about 40,000 users had fallen into third‑party hands.
A separate signal came from the model developers themselves. Anthropic found that groups of AI agents exhibit issues with trust, deception, and collusion — models’ behavior changes when multiple agents work on a task rather than one.
Moscow law enforcement conducted searches at “Gorbushka”
On the evening of August 13, mass searches took place at Moscow’s Gorbushka shopping complex in a case involving crypto exchangers.
Pressure on cash exchange coincided with tighter bank compliance. On August 11, major Russian banks began requesting explanations from corporate clients for transactions with USDT — including from companies outside the experimental legal regime.
Beyond standard checks under Federal Law 115‑FZ, credit institutions require confirmation that the counterparty is included in the Bank of Russia’s register of digital currency exchange operators. That register does not yet exist: the central bank plans to create it in the fall.
Crypto expert Viktor Pershikov, in a comment to ForkLog, linked the checks not to a direct instruction from the regulator but to banks’ self‑insurance logic. In his view, the initiative comes from Rosfinmonitoring, and he sees no legal risks in demanding something that does not yet exist — everything fits within 115‑FZ.
However, the uncertainty will not last long. The law “On Digital Currency and Digital Rights” takes effect on September 1, with a transition period until July 1, 2027. In parallel, the State Duma is considering bill No. 1193493‑8 on criminal and administrative liability for the illegal circulation of cryptocurrencies with confiscation of exchanged assets.
Separately, the ForkLog editorial team broke down in the latest Deconstruction what was found in Tether’s reserves and on what grounds Russian banks block USDT transactions.
Risks for legal businesses were also discussed in Kyiv that week. On August 13, the head of the НКЦБФР, Oleksiy Semenyuk, said that crypto market regulation should protect users but preserve for companies the benefits of operating legally in the country — otherwise they will move abroad.
Also on ForkLog:
- WSJ uncovered a network of DPRK workers at U.S. companies
- ECB: crypto payments have not taken hold in the euro area’s online commerce
- The U.S. will step up the fight against cybercrime with help from business
- Media: JPMorgan ended banking services for Polymarket
- Twenty One reported a quarterly loss of $413.5 million
- Etherealize’s head called Wall Street’s closed blockchains a “race to the bottom”
- Tether completed its first full financial audit
Institutions enter the market, Clarity Act stalls
On August 14, Israel’s largest bank announced a partnership with Galaxy Digital. Clients of Bank Leumi and its mobile unit PEPPER will be able to trade bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana.
Institutional investors are moving the same way. Norway’s sovereign fund disclosed a stake in BitMine worth $81.9 million.
Bitcoin treasuries risk losing a place in indices. Strategy and Metaplanet may be removed from MSCI’s calculation base.
The legislative track, by contrast, has slowed. On August 15, Galaxy Digital estimated the probability of the Clarity Act passing at 10%. A week earlier, Polymarket traders were pricing in 21% after the Senate postponed the first procedural vote to September 15.
What else to read?
We examined what a “reverse centaur” is and how it threatens the economy and technological progress.
We explained how social engineering and artificial intelligence undermine decentralization.
We explained why institutional adoption has not turned bitcoin into a safe‑haven asset.
In a new edition of the “Quantum & After” column, we calculated how many qubits are needed to crack a private key and which 6 million BTC have already revealed public keys on‑chain.
Together with the ONLYP2P team, we examined what a cryptocurrency seller in Russia will have to prove in 2027.
BitOK analysts uncovered money‑laundering schemes of a leading Russian‑language darknet platform.
We compiled the most notable security events of the week in our traditional digest.
