Weekly: Bitcoin loses ground, Ethereum weakens, and sanctions pressure the market again

Bitcoin first rose above $77,000 amid news about a possible ceasefire between the United States and Iran, but then quickly pulled back to $73,900. Ethereum also failed to hold above $2,000, spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $1.26 billion in outflows, and the first cryptocurrency itself once again fell out of the top 10 largest assets by capitalization. At the same time, the market was pressured by UK sanctions, new tax signals from the EU, weaker demand for BTC, and AI news.

Bitcoin fell out of the top 10 

On May 25, Bitcoin rose to $77,000 on geopolitical optimism, but by May 28 it had already fallen to $72,728. Closer to the end of the week, the asset was trading near $73,900, while the total weekly decline amounted to 3.8%. The move itself already looked unpleasant, but the worse signal came from demand. According to analysts, the Apparent Demand indicator dropped to its lowest level since the beginning of 2026. In other words, the market is seeing not just a correction, but weakness in interest toward the asset itself.

Against this backdrop, Bitcoin fell to 13th place among the largest assets and companies by capitalization, with a valuation of about $1.52 trillion. Over the past six months, this figure has decreased by 16.5%. This is an important symbolic moment: Bitcoin still remains a large asset, but the market no longer gives it an automatic advantage when big money starts behaving more cautiously.

ETF performance also weakened separately. Between May 18 and May 22, spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States saw $1.26 billion in outflows. This is the fourth-largest weekly outflow in the segment’s history and already the third such case in 2026. So the pressure is coming not only from the chart, but also through the retreat of large capital.

An unknown owner burned 107 BTC that had been dormant for about 11 years. The coins, worth around $8.3 million, were sent to a burn address from which they can no longer be recovered. The reasons are unknown, but the case itself once again shows that the crypto market still lives not only by the logic of funds and corporations, but also by very atypical actions from old wallets.

Ethereum looks weak

Ethereum last week fell below $2,000 for the first time since the end of March 2025. At one point, the price reached $1,967, and closer to the weekend it recovered only to the $2,016 level. For the asset itself, analysts saw signals that may point to stronger bearish pressure, and this no longer looks like a simple technical pause after growth.

The story with David Hoffman, co-founder of Bankless and one of Ethereum’s best-known public supporters, sounded even harsher. He completely exited his ETH position, explaining that the asset’s potential had already been realized and that further ecosystem development was unlikely to have a significant impact on the price. For the market, this is a blow not only to the price, but also to the narrative itself.

BitMine, which is described as the largest corporate holder of Ethereum, was included in the preliminary list for inclusion in the Russell 1000. This is an important institutional signal: the ecosystem may look weak in price terms, but it continues to enter the space of the large stock market.

Altcoins do not give a single picture

Sentiment around XRP worsened – the ratio of positive and negative comments almost evened out, and this clearly shows that the market there is also losing confidence. At the same time, this does not mean an automatic collapse, because such periods of fear have sometimes worked as a contrarian signal.

On the other hand, some individual assets moved significantly better than the market. This once again shows that there is still no broad altseason. There are only separate stories where capital is trying to find a new entry point while the overall backdrop remains weak.

Sanctions, taxes, and the CLARITY Act

The United Kingdom introduced a new package of sanctions against financial and cryptocurrency networks linked to Russia. The restrictions affected banks, crypto platforms, and companies from Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, and the UAE. The list also included a structure linked to the HTX brand. This matters not only because of the list itself, but also because of the direction of movement – crypto is moving deeper into sanctions policy and geoeconomic pressure.

At the same time, the European Commission estimates that new taxes on digital services, online gambling, and crypto assets could bring the EU budget almost €11 billion per year. In other words, policymakers already see crypto not as a marginal sector, but as a real source of revenue and influence.

Against this backdrop, Jamie Dimon promised to continue fighting against the current version of the CLARITY Act. His main argument is that the document effectively gives crypto companies overly comfortable conditions, particularly in the matter of stablecoin yields. 

Projects are building infrastructure even in a weak market

Base activated the Azul upgrade on mainnet: the protocol’s first independent upgrade, which the team presents as a step toward full network decentralization. The key innovation was a multi-proof system that combines ZK and TEE. This is not a loud piece of news for the mass market, but these are exactly the kinds of changes that create real infrastructural weight.

FalconX took its first step toward an IPO in the United States by filing a confidential application with the SEC. Chainlink launched a service for buying crypto assets with fiat together with Mastercard. KelpDAO completed a five-week restoration of rsETH after the largest DeFi hack of 2026. Separately, Tether, together with the Georgian authorities, announced the launch of GEL₮, a stablecoin pegged to the Georgian lari. 

AI is already pressing not as a trend, but as a separate zone of influence

Anthropic introduced Claude Opus 4.8 – a new version of its most powerful model. The company emphasizes better performance, greater honesty about errors when writing code, and the fact that the model remained in the same price range. This matters because in the AI segment, simply making a model stronger is no longer enough. It is also necessary to show control, stability, and clear commercial logic.

At the same time, Pope Leo XIV, in his first encyclical, called for strict AI regulation and limits on its use in the military sphere. The wording was sharp: artificial intelligence must be disarmed, and a technological revolution built on the cult of profit creates new forms of dehumanization. This is a revealing moment – AI has already definitively moved beyond the tech environment and entered the political, ethical, and humanitarian space.

Another very practical piece of news – MoonPay integrated cryptocurrency purchases directly into ChatGPT. Now users can buy Bitcoin, XRP, Solana, USDC, and other assets through the OpenAI bot using ordinary text prompts. This change matters not because it is loud, but because it removes another entry barrier. Crypto is moving closer and closer to a normal mass-market interface.

Demis Hassabis of Google DeepMind once again raised the stakes in the AGI discussion, saying that humanity is approaching the foothills of the singularity and that AGI could appear by 2030 or even earlier. At the same time, information emerged that one of Anthropic’s corporate clients accidentally spent about $500 million on Claude in one month simply because it gave employees almost unlimited access to the system. This is no longer a conversation about the distant future. This is a market where AI is already generating breakthroughs, costs, and new questions about control right now.

On the other side of the law, things did not get calmer either

The criminal block of the week also had enough heavy news. Gravity Bridge lost $5.4 million in a hack that, according to preliminary estimates, was linked to the compromise of one or more bridge signing keys. The FBI, as part of Operation Blackout, announced the largest crypto asset seizure in its history – more than $8 billion and about 300 arrests. DxSale lost $7.3 million because of an old contract on BNB Chain, and the number of affected users is estimated at around 1,400.

The Ukrainian case was also very harsh: investigators completed the pre-trial investigation in the case of a group of four former police officers and a civilian accomplice who are suspected of kidnapping crypto entrepreneurs and earning about $2.2 million. At the same time, the United States charged a Google engineer who, according to authorities, earned $1.2 million on Polymarket using internal data on Google search trends. The United States also confiscated about $1 billion in crypto assets from Iran as part of an economic pressure operation. Crypto has long become part of a large criminal, state, and geopolitical game.

Kursoff opinion

Last week showed a fairly harsh picture, and the conclusion here is simple. When the market weakens, the most important things are visible not in polished theses, but in the places where the system begins to crack. That is where it becomes clear what in this industry still has a margin of strength, and what is already being held up only by inertia.