The first cryptocurrency maintained its position above $80,000, Hyperliquid entered the prediction markets segment, a critical vulnerability was fixed in Bitcoin Core, and other notable events from the past week.

Bitcoin Tests $81,000 Again

On the morning of May 4, the price of the first cryptocurrency broke above the psychological barrier of $80,000. A key driver of this movement was the changing news landscape surrounding the conflict between the U.S. and Iran.

In the following days, the asset continued to rise, climbing above $82,000.

On May 6, the price on Binance reached $82,791 before entering a correction phase. The cryptocurrency held the $80,000 level and began testing $81,000 again.

Over the week, Bitcoin maintained a growth of approximately 2.9%, while Ethereum's price remained relatively unchanged, trading around $2,320.

Source: CoinMarketCap.

Several major altcoins significantly outperformed the leader during this period. The price of SOL increased by over 11%, BNB rose by about 5.2%, HYPE was up by 4.5%, and the TRON token appreciated by 4%.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a net inflow for the sixth consecutive week, the first time since July 2025. These products attracted $622.75 million.

Source: SoSoValue.

Ethereum-based funds saw an inflow of $70.5 million, which did not even compensate for the $82.5 million outflow from the previous period.

Source: SoSoValue.

The cryptocurrency fear and greed index dipped to 38 points during the week but ended at 47, indicating a neutral zone.

Source: Alternative.me.

The total market capitalization stands at $2.69 trillion, with Bitcoin's dominance at 60.2% and Ethereum's share slightly above 10%.

Hyperliquid Launches Prediction Markets

The developers of the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid activated the HIP-4 protocol on the HyperEVM mainnet. The main innovation is the introduction of prediction markets.

On the first trading day, the volume reached 6.05 million contracts. In comparison, during the same period, the Kalshi platform recorded 546 million contracts, while Polymarket had 190 million.

HIP-4 allows users to create markets based on event outcomes within the Hyperliquid infrastructure. To launch a market, a user must stake 1 million HYPE. This approach differs from Polymarket's model, which requires platform approval.

Contracts are natively integrated into the L1 HyperEVM network. In contrast, Polymarket's event betting is a separate product on the L2 solution Polygon.

Predictions are accessible in the same wallet and trading environment as other Hyperliquid tools. Profit and loss calculations are conducted in the project's stablecoin, USDH. Trading operates through a central order book.

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Bitcoin Core Developers Fix Critical Vulnerability

The Bitcoin Core team has resolved a memory safety issue. A significant number of nodes are still operating with vulnerable software.

The bug was discovered by researcher Cory Fields and reported on November 2, 2024.

A few days later, programmer Peter Wuille released a hidden patch. To avoid drawing attention from malicious actors, he presented the update as a routine improvement for debugging parallel script verification.

The fix was incorporated into the codebase in December 2024 and included in the Bitcoin Core 29.0 release in April 2025. The last vulnerable branch, 28.x, reached the end of its lifecycle on April 19, 2026—only after which developers disclosed the details.

Bitcoin Core emphasized that the vulnerability did not affect the consensus rules of the blockchain and was solely related to local memory handling in the node software.

Western Union Launches Solana-Based Stablecoin

Western Union has launched its own stablecoin, USDPT, on the Solana blockchain. The coin is issued by the crypto bank Anchorage Digital.

The reserves of the token are held in U.S. dollars. The integration with Solana will enable the company to expedite transactions and move away from traditional interbank systems with their delays.

Western Union CEO Devin McGranahan stated that the implementation of a regulated digital dollar will create an efficient layer for transactions between partners and agents.

In 2026, the company plans to launch the Stable by Western Union service, allowing customers from 40 countries to spend stablecoins directly. USDPT will also be listed on licensed cryptocurrency exchanges.

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Galaxy Proposes Strategy to Protect Bitcoin from Quantum Attacks

Alex Thorn, head of Galaxy Research, shared insights on the impact of quantum computing on the first cryptocurrency. A consensus has emerged in the community on two key issues.

Thorn believes that Satoshi's coins (P2PK format) should not be touched even under the threat of hacking. Violating the creator's ownership rights would undermine Bitcoin's value proposition.

The risk of expropriating these funds is lower than commonly believed. The coins are distributed across 22,000 addresses. An attacker would have to hack each wallet individually rather than the entire network at once. The analyst noted that the market could absorb even a sudden influx of a large volume of coins. He believes Bitcoin holders would prefer a temporary price drop over compromising the fundamental principles of the protocol.

Thorn supports the development of post-quantum cryptography. Testing new algorithms and optimizing signatures are beneficial for the network, provided it does not cause disagreements within the community or distract developers from other tasks.

The researcher suggested preparing a technical solution and "putting it on the shelf." This would allow for a swift update when the quantum threat becomes real.

What Else to Read?

We explored what is happening in the InfoFi segment, which has experienced a rapid rise, accusations of spam, and strict measures from the social network X.

We presented the future of Web3, where decentralization is achieved through the creation of proprietary and local applications using AI agents.

We compiled the most notable security events of the week in our traditional digest.