Weekly: Bitcoin above $82,000, talks of a memecoin supercycle, and a new wave of pressure on the market

Bitcoin first rose to 80,000 and then to 82,000 dollars, Ethereum also followed, and the mood returned to the feed that crypto is regaining strength. Along with this, old themes quickly returned: a new wave of hacks, problems in DeFi, pressure around regulation, a worrying signal from the IMF about AI, and another portion of noise around memecoins.

Bitcoin broke 82,000

At the beginning of the week, Bitcoin rose above 80,000 dollars, and later above 82,000 amid news of a possible agreement between the US and Iran. This refers to a memorandum that may provide for an end to the war, the unblocking of the Strait of Hormuz, and the easing of sanctions, and it was this geopolitical background that supported not only crypto, but also the broader market.

In April, spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted 1.97 billion dollars, and Wintermute is already talking about possible first signs of a trend reversal in 2026 if the market holds above 82,000. CryptoQuant names 93,000 dollars as a medium-term target because of the unfilled CME gap and the growth of open interest in futures. At the same time, Santiment recorded a four-month high in optimism, and this is exactly where the problem begins: when there is too much euphoria, volatility often returns with it.

Large players are once again setting the tone for BTC

Michael Saylor’s statements drew attention to Strategy: the company, which remains the largest public holder of Bitcoin, is considering the possibility of selling part of its assets to cover dividends. For the market, this is a signal, because when even such players start talking about partially selling reserves, it changes the mood around the entire institutional story of Bitcoin.

Interest in the strategic reserve continues in the US, while military and corporate cases increasingly show that Bitcoin has long been perceived not only as an asset for speculation. Against this backdrop, the market itself looks more complex: some see BTC as an asset of protection and a long cycle, while others are already closely watching where profit-taking may begin. This is exactly the moment when a strong chart does not cancel out a complex internal structure.

Ethereum entered the crypto spring phase

In April, spot Ethereum ETFs attracted 355.98 million dollars, and Bitmine bought an additional 240 million dollars in ETH, increasing its reserves to more than 100,000 ETH in a week. Tom Lee of Bitmine directly speaks about the beginning of crypto spring, meaning a new stage of recovery after a long crypto winter. By his logic, Ethereum is now supported by two forces at once:  tokenization and demand from AI systems. 

The market in ETH is recovering rather than flying into euphoria, and this is even a plus. The sector sees stronger fundamental signals, but it is not yet behaving as if everything has already been decided. That is why Ethereum now looks stronger in the logic of a long move than in the emotion of a short-term surge.

Altcoins live between the memecoin supercycle, TON, and Zcash

Against the backdrop of news about the outbreak of the Andean hantavirus, the crypto community once again started talking about a possible memecoin supercycle. Some traders even compared it to the DeFi boom during the COVID-19 era, and thematic tokens such as HANTA have already appeared on the market. Additional noise was added by the TRUMP token, which rose after reports of a shooting near the White House. At the same time, Iggy Azalea was hit with a class-action lawsuit over the MOTHER memecoin after its value fell. That is, memecoins are once again giving the market both a driver and a toxic background at the same time.

Pavel Durov announced the almost complete elimination of fees in TON, which became one of the drivers of the token’s jump by more than 30% in a day, while Telegram plans to become the largest validator of the network. 

Zcash rose by more than 150% in a month against the backdrop of talks about an ETF from Grayscale, a Robinhood listing, and a technological upgrade with the transition to quantum-recoverable wallets. 

DeFi once again reminds how fragile the sector remains

KelpDAO accused LayerZero of compromising the system after the rsETH bridge hack worth more than 290 million dollars and announced a transition to Chainlink, while LayerZero acknowledged mistakes in the DVN model and promised to rebuild the infrastructure. After the attack, Aave reported progress in restoring rsETH.

Against this backdrop, TrustedVolumes, a 1inch partner, also fell victim to a new exploit with nearly 6 million dollars in losses, while Drift Protocol presented a new compensation model for users after losing about 295 million dollars.

Regulation in the US is moving

Donald Trump’s administration wants to secure the adoption of the bill by July 4, 2026 and is already talking about a compromise on the issue of stablecoin yield. For now, this looks more like an attempt to push through a difficult discussion than a ready-made framework that will give the market a sense of certainty.

The SEC postponed the launch of ETFs based on prediction markets, asking issuers for additional information on product mechanics and disclosure. A poll showed that only 1% of American voters consider cryptocurrency the main political priority ahead of the 2026 elections. This is an important detail: in Washington, they talk a lot about crypto, but for the broad voter it is still not at the center of the agenda. So the regulatory movement continues, but it is not accompanied by a feeling that society has truly matured for a full reboot of the rules.

The IMF and the market already see AI as a systemic risk

The IMF warned that the new generation of AI models could trigger a systemic financial crisis because of a sharp increase in cyberattack capabilities. The fund paid special attention to the Anthropic Mythos model, while Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan directly named cyber threats the biggest risk for the global financial sector. Dario Amodei himself stated that AI is already capable of finding tens of thousands of potential vulnerabilities, including in Firefox, while Anatoly Yakovenko of Solana warned that the development of AI could become a threat both to cryptography and to post-quantum algorithms.

DeepSeek is approaching a 45 billion dollar valuation, while a structure connected to OpenAI and a16z, according to WIRED, paid bloggers to promote anti-China narratives on the topic of AI. Yat Siu of Animoca Brands is generally talking about the end of the era of the classic metaverse and the arrival of an agent economy with 100 billion autonomous systems. Add to this the wave of popularity of image and video generation, the use of AI to determine user age at Meta, layoffs at Oracle and Coinbase, and the BBC investigation into psychological breakdowns after active communication with chatbots  and you get the conclusion: AI is no longer just a trend, but a separate zone of tension for finance, platforms, labor, and security.

Kursoff’s opinion

In weeks like this, it is important to look not only at Bitcoin’s rise, but also at what is happening beyond it: where systemic risk is accumulating, who is really holding the market, and who is simply generating noise. That is what gives more understanding right now than the fact of growth itself.