Bitcoin Pushes Forward on Post-Quantum Security
The question of how imminent a quantum computing threat to Bitcoin really is continues to divide the community, yet this week brought two concrete steps toward hardening the blockchain against such an attack.
Avihu Levy, a researcher at StarkWare, conducted a live test of a quantum-resistant transaction on Bitcoin's mainnet. The experiment was designed to shield outputs during the short window in which public keys become visible inside the mempool. Onchain records confirm that StarkWare spent a 10,000-satoshi output secured using Levy's Quantum Safe Bitcoin (QSB) protocol, which pairs hash-based one-time signatures with computational searches that tether an authorization to a particular transaction. While the mechanism functions, observers note it is closer to an emergency workaround than a scalable solution: each transaction requires several hours to complete and carries a cost in the range of $150 to $200.
Longer-term progress also surfaced on August 27, when Blockstream researchers released a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal introducing the SHRINCS signature scheme. The team managed to compress an otherwise massive hash-based post-quantum signature by roughly 13.23-fold. Even so, the resulting signature remains at least nine times bulkier than Bitcoin's current signatures and introduces a set of trade-offs.
Jonas Nick of Blockstream Research described the release as "the first concrete proposal for a post-quantum signature scheme designed specifically for Bitcoin." Acknowledging it was "not optimal along every axis," he nonetheless called it "a very good trade-off among the options we have now."
Solana Halves Inflation Timeline; Bitcoin Outpaces AI-Linked Equities
Solana's validator set voted to double the network's annual disinflation rate under proposal SGP-0002, commonly referred to as Double Disinflation. The measure will cut total token issuance by 18.9 million SOL over the following six years. Participation hit 60.7% of eligible stake, with 67% in favor, 25.16% against, and 7.84% abstaining. The annual disinflation rate jumps from 15% to 30%, bringing Solana's projected arrival at its 1.5% terminal inflation rate forward to roughly 2.8 years, compared with approximately 5.7 years under the old schedule.
On the activity front, data shared by The Kobeissi Letter revealed that Solana processed a record 4.2 billion transactions in July, a 13.5% month-over-month increase. Since December, transaction volume has climbed by around 2 billion, a 91% jump.
Meanwhile, BlocksBridge Consulting noted that Bitcoin's 23% rally over the past week had outperformed the majority of AI-linked infrastructure stocks. Three heavily beaten-down miners — Canaan, American Bitcoin, and Cango — posted gains between 41% and 67%. In contrast, CoreWeave rose about 21%, Nebius gained 17%, and IREN advanced 15%.
Bitcoin ETFs attracted more than $3.3 billion in August, marking the strongest month since the all-time high set in October 2025, although outflows on Friday snapped a nine-day inflow streak.
On the outlook side, Bernstein analysts argued that a new four-year cycle is underway. Their base-case and bull-case scenarios both see Bitcoin reclaiming $125,000, with a peak of $300,000 in 2029 under the base case or above $500,000 in the same year under the bullish scenario.
Trump Crypto Losses, Revolut's EURR, and Weekly Price Action
Nonprofit consumer group Public Citizen published a report claiming that US President Donald Trump has left investors with an estimated $4.7 billion in losses since 2022 through his and his family's digital asset ventures. The breakdown includes $3.2 billion lost on the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin, at least $1 billion tied to the World Liberty Financial governance token, $450 million linked to Trump Media's digital asset treasury, and a minimum of $9.3 million on the president's NFT trading cards launched in 2022.
The president's crypto-related gains have become one of the sticking points in the Senate's deliberations over the CLARITY Act, with Democrats pressing for stronger safeguards that would bar elected officials from issuing cryptocurrencies.
In stablecoin news, Revolut began distributing its first token, a euro-pegged asset called EURR, to roughly 2 million customers across Denmark, Poland, and Portugal. The phased rollout is slated to reach additional European Economic Area markets later this year. EURR is issued by Bridge Building S.A., the Luxembourg entity of Stripe-owned stablecoin infrastructure firm Bridge. Revolut plans to integrate EURR into its retail app, support multiple blockchain networks, and enable transfers to external wallets, with Ethereum as the initial chain.
By the weekend close, Bitcoin (BTC) stood at $78,420, up 1.1%; Ethereum (ETH) traded at $2,469, up 0.6%; and XRP fell 8.7% to $1.38. Total crypto market capitalization reached $2.64 trillion per CoinMarketCap. Among the top 100 coins, the week's biggest altcoin gainers were VeChain (VET) at +18.5%, SPX6900 (SPX) at +17.3%, and Uniswap (UNI) at +15.2%. The top losers were Aptos (APT) at -16.4%, Stable (STABLE) at -14.7%, and Morpho (MORPHO) at -13.6%.
Sentiment Indicators, Retirement-Plan Survey, and Security Disclosures
CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju highlighted the first positive reading on the firm's Bull/Bear Market Cycle Indicator since early October. The metric blends onchain profitability measures — including the MVRV ratio, NUPL, and SOPR — against a 365-day moving average. Values above zero signal a bullish phase. The current cycle bottom hit on February 5, when BTC/USD dipped to $60,000 and the indicator read -1.244, classified as "extreme bear." By August 26, the reading had turned positive at 0.042, placing it in the "bull" bracket.
A separate survey by the National Institute on Retirement Security, conducted by Greenwald Research between October 24 and November 14, 2025, among 1,203 Americans aged 25 and older (weighted by age, gender, and income), found that 77% consider cryptocurrency in workplace retirement plans risky, with 46% labeling it very risky. Additionally, 53% oppose employers offering crypto as an investment option.
Real Trump Coins publicly denied any involvement with the Trump Digital GOLD token that briefly appeared on its X account and website before collapsing. The Solana-based token was promoted on Saturday with a link to RealTrumpCoins.com; the posts were subsequently deleted, and the account now points to TrumpCoins.com. In a Saturday X post, the brand stated it had not authorized and would not launch, promote, or authorize any digital token, and said it was cooperating with authorities.
Polygon Labs' Validators Support Team disclosed on Thursday several previously private security vulnerabilities that could have disrupted its proof-of-stake network. The flaws affected the Bor and Heimdall clients and included denial-of-service risks, validator resource exhaustion, and weaknesses in checkpoint and milestone processing. Polygon confirmed the issues were remediated through the Austin and Kyoto hard forks, which were deployed privately, tested, and only then activated on mainnet before public disclosure.
In related coverage, Cointelegraph also reported on Hugging Face's reliance on open-weight Chinese models to defend against rogue AI agents — a strategy complicated by the models' lack of safety guardrails — and raised the legal question of whether individuals can be held liable when a personal AI agent causes real-world harm or financial damage.