Bitcoin held steady around $78,000, Ethereum's activity surged to record levels, American Bitcoin investors faced $500 million in losses, and other key events from the past week.

Uncertain Market Structure

While Bitcoin managed to stay above $78,000, the past week has left investors questioning the sustainability of this positive trend.

The cryptocurrency traditionally opened Monday with a drop, falling from a local peak of $79,500 to $76,500. A slight consolidation followed on Tuesday, bringing it down to $76,000.

By Wednesday morning, April 29, Bitcoin had regained some ground but sharply reversed at $79,000 following the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates. Within hours, the asset plummeted to $75,000.

The regulator kept the rate in the 3.5–3.75% range for the third consecutive time, citing inflationary pressures from rising global energy prices and warning that the situation in the Middle East creates a "high level of uncertainty" for forecasts.

Nonetheless, several analysts believe that the rate decision is not currently the main driver of digital gold prices. Market attention is focused on the U.S. CLARITY Act bill.

Throughout Thursday, Bitcoin slowly recovered and by Friday had stabilized around $78,000. Over the weekend, the coin traded within a narrow range of $78,000 to $79,000.

As of this writing, Bitcoin is hovering around $78,800 (+1.3% for the week).

A positive close for April may have provided psychological relief for investors. Bitcoin recorded a notable monthly gain of 11.8% for the first time in a year.

However, analysts from CryptoQuant pointed out the speculative nature of April's rally. They believe the recovery from $66,000 to $79,000 was driven by perpetual futures, while spot demand remained negative.

Experts compared the current demand structure to the beginning of the bear phase in 2022, when rising derivative volumes were also accompanied by a contraction in spot activity, leading Bitcoin into a multi-month correction.

Other top-10 cryptocurrencies generally followed Bitcoin's lead. Ethereum remains around $2,300, while Solana hovers near $85.

In the spot Bitcoin ETF segment, inflows have continued for the fifth week in a row, although volumes are starting to decline. From April 27 to May 1, investors directed a net $153 million into products.

Ethereum funds ended a three-week streak, losing $82 million.

The cryptocurrency fear and greed index returned to neutral territory for the first time since mid-January, currently sitting at 47 points.

The total cryptocurrency market capitalization stands at $2.69 trillion, with Bitcoin dominance at 58.5% and Ethereum at 10.4%.

Record Activity

The number of active addresses on the Ethereum network reached an all-time high, with the 100-day moving average surpassing 587,000.

CryptoQuant expert CryptoOnchain noted a record divergence between the asset's market price and the protocol's fundamental indicators. Historically, an increase in active addresses has correlated with rising coin prices.

The current situation is a rare exception to this trend.

CryptoOnchain added that the influx of new users and demand for the blockchain indicate Ethereum is undervalued. The analyst referred to this as a "hidden bullish signal."

At the same time, other researchers reported abnormal figures in derivatives for the second-largest cryptocurrency. An expert under the pseudonym Arab Chain noted a decline in open interest for Ethereum on Binance.

This metric dropped to $4.99 billion, with an average of $5.31 billion.

The negative MVRV Z-Score (-0.91) confirms liquidity outflow, indicating traders are hesitant to open new positions — the market lacks confidence in a rapid rise.

Analyst Darkfost highlighted signs of a potential short squeeze: since the local minimum on February 6, Ethereum's price has risen over 30%, while at its peak, the asset lost around 65% of its value, and the altcoin market capitalization halved.

Meanwhile, a large volume of coins has accumulated in the staking exit queue. On May 2, this figure reached a local maximum of over 530,000 ETH.

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Trump Model

Forbes estimated the losses of investors in the mining company American Bitcoin at $500 million. The firm is owned by U.S. President's son, Eric Trump.

Since the company's debut on Nasdaq in September 2025 with a valuation of $13.2 billion, Trump's wealth has grown from approximately $190 million to $280 million — he did not invest his own money in the business's creation. Meanwhile, American Bitcoin's shares have plummeted by 92%.

Forbes pointed out the unprofitability of the mining firm, noting that the total cost of mining 1 BTC is around $90,000.

Journalists also highlighted the terms of the deal with Hut 8. American Bitcoin gained access to mining equipment, while the other party retained data centers, real estate, operational management, and part of the leadership. According to the annual report, American Bitcoin had only two full-time employees.

In August-September 2025, the company purchased ASIC miners for about $330 million — not in cash, but by pledging Bitcoin with the option of choosing the payment method. If prices rose, they could pay in cash and retain their coins; if prices fell, they would transfer them to the supplier.

After the deal, the price of Bitcoin dropped by about 30%. Forbes believes that if the current trend continues, American Bitcoin will lose the pledged 3,090 BTC — while the company has only mined 1,800 BTC.

Additionally, around 70% of American Bitcoin's cryptocurrency came not from mining but from selling shares and subsequently buying coins on the market.

Since its inception until the end of March, the firm has spent about $525 million on Bitcoin, which is now valued at approximately $390 million. According to Forbes, the company has "burned" around $135 million of shareholder funds.

Eric Trump himself called the publication a "political weapon" and a "shame of journalism."

"Just a year ago, American Bitcoin didn’t exist. […] Today we own 9,000 BTC and are the 16th largest public Bitcoin company in the world, relying on a fleet of 90,000 miners," the president's son wrote.

Record Hacks

The past month set a record for hacks in the crypto industry — in April, analysts from DefiLlama recorded over 20 incidents.

According to CertiK, total losses from attacks reached $651 million. While this figure is not the highest in monetary terms, the number of individual hacks exceeded historical levels.

Analyst Stacey Moore estimated that there were 24 recorded cases of fund theft. Among the largest:

  • Kelp — $292 million;
  • Drift Protocol — $280 million;
  • Rhea Lend — $18.4 million.

According to CertiK, April's losses were the most significant since March 2022, excluding the Bybit incident. Approximately $3.5 million of the total was attributed to phishing.

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Wayward AI Agent

Cursor CEO Jer Crane reported that their digital assistant based on the Opus 4.6 model independently deleted the main database and all backups of the startup PocketOS in nine seconds, with no possibility of recovery.

The affected project was positioned as a provider for rental services, primarily cars. Some clients had worked with the company for over five years, using software for booking, payments, management, tracking vehicles, and other tasks.

When the AI agent was asked to explain its actions, it listed the security rules it violated. During task execution in a test environment, the bot encountered a credential mismatch. To resolve the issue, it deleted the permanent data storage on the Railway platform.

The assistant searched for an API token and found it in a file unrelated to the current task. The token was originally created for adding and removing user domains via Railway CLI.

The agent executed the delete command without requesting confirmation. Since Railway stores backups in the same storage, they also disappeared.

"I didn’t check. I didn’t verify whether the identifier was used in all environments. I didn’t read Railway’s documentation on how storage works in different environments before executing the command," the agent explained.

According to it, system rules prohibit executing destructive and irreversible commands without explicit user request. The AI also admitted to violating all security protocols.

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