WEEKLY: Bitcoin recovers, CLARITY Act stalls, and 5,000 issues found in the BTC ecosystem

Bitcoin rose for most of the week: on Monday it was holding near $62,000, on Friday it climbed above $65,000, and at the time of preparing this weekly it was trading at around $64,900. Ethereum also moved higher from the $1,800 area to above $1,940.

The main topics of the week: a possible end to the bearish phase, another BTC sale by Strategy, nearly 5,000 potential vulnerabilities in the Bitcoin ecosystem, the CLARITY Act delay, and a new wave of crypto fraud.

Market and Bitcoin

Bitcoin looked stronger than during the weeks of pressure in July: the asset gained around 15% from its recent lows, but the market is still far from fully confident. Santiment recorded a record-low ratio of positive to negative comments about BTC, while short-term holders transferred more than 32,000 BTC to exchanges at a loss on August 1.

Demand was supported by buyers outside the US, while large holders of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP continued accumulating. CryptoQuant recorded more than 38,000 BTC transferred to accumulation addresses linked to long-term investors and OTC operations.

Is the bearish phase ending?

Wintermute sees signs that the bearish phase may be coming to an end. Leading crypto assets handled macro pressure, uncertainty around the Federal Reserve’s interest rate, and weaker liquidity better than many market participants expected. However, Wintermute does not expect a rapid acceleration. The current situation looks more like stabilization after a difficult phase than the beginning of a new strong trend.

Strategy is selling BTC again

Strategy sold 1,638 BTC worth $104.73 million between July 27 and August 2. The funds were directed toward dividend payments on preferred shares and STRC buybacks.

Michael Saylor explained that his statement about “never selling Bitcoin” applies to individual investors, not to a public company. According to him, Strategy has openly allowed both buying and selling BTC for capital management purposes since 2020.

Strategy still remains the main corporate symbol of the Bitcoin bet, but its sales are already affecting market sentiment. Investors are looking not only at the amount of BTC held in reserve, but also at the sustainability of the entire DAT model.

5,000 problems in the Bitcoin ecosystem

Bitcoin Red Team reported 4,962 potential vulnerabilities across 390 Bitcoin projects. They were identified in just 27.5 hours. Of these, 85 were classified as critical, while another 635 were rated high-risk.

This does not mean Bitcoin itself has been compromised, but BTC has long been surrounded by a large ecosystem of services, wallets, libraries, and tools. This is where risks for users tend to accumulate.

Against the backdrop of AI development, the issue is becoming even more pressing. Models can accelerate both vulnerability detection and potential attacks. That is why the security of crypto infrastructure is once again moving to the center of attention.

Ethereum and staking

At the beginning of the week, the asset was trading near $1,800, on Friday it moved above $1,940, and at the time of preparing this weekly it was around $1,918.

The main topic within the ecosystem was proposal EIP-8363. Developers are proposing to burn part of staking rewards. The amount burned could gradually increase to 100% if half of the total ETH supply is staked.

The idea is intended to reduce the risk of excessive ETH accumulation among large validators, but the proposal has already faced criticism because it affects staking economics, network security, and the role of ETH within the ecosystem.

CLARITY Act missed the deadline

Bernstein analysts said the chances of the CLARITY Act being passed in 2026 are declining. There was too little time left before the Senate’s August recess, and the vote was eventually postponed.

Matt Hougan of Bitwise warned that if the Senate did not file a motion to end debate by August 5, the bill would be stalled until at least September or possibly even December, and that is exactly what happened.

Crypto fraud and enforcement cases

The FBI continues Operation Blackout against global investment fraud networks. As part of the operation, authorities seized more than $15 billion in crypto assets, shut down over 500 fraudulent websites, arrested hundreds of suspects, and disabled millions of accounts.

But the week also exposed problems within law enforcement itself. FBI agent Patrick Steven Yaroch was arrested on suspicion of stealing around $1 million in cryptocurrency from materials connected to a counterintelligence investigation.

The criminal section was also expanded by a $3.3 million romance crypto scam in Hong Kong, a US case involving an attempt to seize Bitcoin by force, and Chainalysis data on physical attacks against crypto investors. In the first half of 2026, losses from such attacks had already exceeded $30 million.

Binance vs RedotPay

Binance-affiliated companies filed a lawsuit against RedotPay and its co-founders in Hong Kong. They are seeking nearly $473 million in compensation.

According to the plaintiffs, RedotPay breached a partnership agreement and redirected more than 470,000 users to its own product, including through card top-ups using Binance Pay in ways that allegedly bypassed the terms of the partnership.

RedotPay rejects the allegations, but the case matters for the broader payments segment: crypto cards, exchanges, and payment routes are becoming increasingly interconnected, while competition for users and fees continues to intensify.

Other important signals

Stablecoin outflows from South Korea have continued for 18 consecutive months, exceeding $360 million in June. The NEAR co-founder proposed creating a sovereign protocol fund. Apple temporarily removed Telegram from the App Store. Cloudflare introduced crypto wallets for AI agents with support for stablecoins and micropayments.

US senators called on the SEC to investigate the TRUMP memecoin over billions in investor losses. EU regulators warned about a new wave of crypto fraud amid MiCA. Step App announced its shutdown. North Korean hackers infiltrated 1,640 companies across 57 countries and targeted crypto keys.

Kursoff’s view

Risks remain: Strategy is selling BTC again, the CLARITY Act has been stalled until autumn, thousands of potential problems have been identified in the Bitcoin ecosystem, while fraud and physical attacks continue to undermine trust. The market is recovering, but it is now paying closer attention to infrastructure resilience than to bold promises.