Ethereum shipped the Pectra upgrade, the US Senate is probing President Donald Trump's crypto projects, public miners ramped up bitcoin sales and more from the week.
Bitcoin began the week at $94,800. For two days the price mostly stayed below $95,000, but on 7 May it tested $97,000 amid news of a US-China meeting on tariffs.
On the morning of 8 May the price rose above $99,000. The driver was US President Donald Trump's promises to enact "the biggest tax cut" and strike a "major trade deal".
Bitcoin's realised capitalisation reached a record $890.74bn, signalling potential for further gains.
During the day bitcoin again cleared $100,000 -- the level seen in early February. The impulsive rise came with a surge in trading volumes.
On 9 May the price hit $103,700 before momentum faded. In the small hours of 11 May it notched a local high above $104,600.
At the time of writing bitcoin trades at $103,784, up 8.2% on the week.
For Ethereum the week began around $1,800. For the first three days the price did not exceed $1,900.
On 8 May, amid broader market excitement and the launch of the Pectra upgrade, the chart turned higher. In a day the price rose 18.8% to above $2,300.
Ethereum outpaced bitcoin and other major cryptoassets on the day. The trader known as Daan Crypto Trades called the asset's daily candle "absolutely insane".
Nick Foster, founder of the Derive protocol, said the move was driven by several factors, not just Pectra. He pointed to events favourable to digital assets such as a US-UK trade agreement and Coinbase's purchase of the Deribit options platform for $2.9bn.
In the night of 11 May the price hit a local high of $2,564 before turning lower.
At the time of writing Ethereum trades at $2,481, up more than 35% on the week.
During the week the fear-and-greed index reached 73 but eased to 70 by the weekend.
Over the past seven days all top‑10 assets by market capitalisation posted gains.
Pectra includes a series of improvements aimed at making Ethereum more user‑friendly and efficient. The upgrade contains 11 key EIPs. One notable change is adding smart‑contract functionality to wallets, simplifying their use and recovery.
Rolling out the hard fork on the Sepolia (consensus layer) and Holesky (execution layer) testnets led to disruptions. In the former case, additional complications arose from a malicious actor's interference.
In Holesky, even after restoration of functionality, it proved impossible to test the upgrade's validator‑exit features.
Developers decided to create a new long‑term testnet to complete validation of the hard fork. The network, named Hoodi, was launched on 17 March and the update was deployed there the same month.
According to the Ethereum team, the main features implemented are active on mainnet, including:
The next Ethereum hard fork, Fusaka, is scheduled for the second half of the year (September-October). Developers have already excluded changes to the EVM codebase to implement the Ethereum Object Format.
One reason for dropping the option was Vitalik Buterin's proposal to move Ethereum's virtual machine to a new architecture.
Democratic senator Chris Murphy proposed a bill that would bar US federal officials, including Trump, from promoting meme‑coins for personal gain.
The document, dubbed the MEME Act, seeks to prevent the use of public office to enrich oneself via digital assets or securities.
The trigger was TRUMP, launched ahead of Trump's inauguration on the Solana blockchain. Murphy called the token "an example of corruption":
"Trump turned the crypto market into a personal Venmo account where foreign oligarchs transfer millions for political favours."
Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal sent requests to World Liberty Financial (WLF) and Fight Fight Fight LLC seeking details of Trump's involvement. He said the Senate investigations committee is opening a probe into potential conflicts of interest and breaches of law.
In a letter to Fight Fight Fight LLC, issuer of TRUMP, Blumenthal pointed to sharp price swings and suggested a small circle profited from the launch. He also criticised the dinner with Trump: in his view, the event was staged to spur token sales after interest waned.
"Trump's ties to the TRUMP token and attempts to use the White House to increase its value are an unprecedented pay‑to‑play scheme," the senator said.
In his letter to WLF, Blumenthal said the Trump family had obtained "significant financial benefit" from the project, and that collaboration with foreign investors poses a national‑security risk.
The companies must provide documents on ownership structure, financial flows and measures to prevent conflicts of interest by 27 July.
Earlier, Democrats said they would not support the stablecoin bill (the GENIUS Act) unless it added tough anti‑money‑laundering rules and restrictions on foreign issuers.
"Trump launched his own stablecoin -- that is unacceptable. We worked for three years on regulation, and now we are being rushed while key risks are ignored," said Maxine Waters, vice‑chair of the House Financial Services Committee.
Democrats had previously intended to approve the GENIUS Act. A week earlier, a revised version appeared, which many did not have time to study. Some senators called for further work on the document.
Democrats issued a statement withdrawing support for the GENIUS Act, citing concerns over revised anti‑money‑laundering requirements and national security.
In April, public mining companies sold roughly 70% of the bitcoins they produced.
The shift away from last year's popular HODL strategy emerged in March. Sales reached the highest level since October 2024.
Riot Platforms and CleanSpark formally abandoned a policy of retaining 100% of mined coins. As a result, in April the former sold more than 100% of bitcoins mined, and the latter about 65%.
Only three companies -- MARA, Cango and BitFuFu -- kept all production.
According to BitcoinTreasuries, MARA increased reserves to 48,237 BTC, second only to Strategy with 555,450 BTC.
Despite moving away from HODL, Riot and CleanSpark still hold 19,211 BTC and 11,869 BTC respectively.
Experts largely attribute miners' selling to ongoing pressure on mining profitability from network parameters. Even with bitcoin above $100,000, hashprice reached only $55 per PH/s per day, well below December's local highs around $63.
With a 3.34% mining‑difficulty adjustment in May, the measure has risen about 8.5% since the start of the year.
Hashrate (7‑day MA) has almost returned to the record 925.43 EH/s set on 8 April.
Public miners continued to add computing power in April. MARA's connected hashrate reached 57.3 EH/s, up 5.5% month on month.
He said selling pressure on the leading cryptocurrency is easing, while substantial inflows are arriving via exchange‑traded funds (ETFs).
Previously, bitcoin's trajectory was shaped by three groups: miners, whales and retail investors. When liquidity from new participants dried up and large holders began taking profit, a cascade of selling followed.
The market structure has now become more complex: alongside traditional players, ETFs, companies such as Strategy, institutional investors and even government entities have entered, Ju noted.
"The old model of cycles no longer works. It is now more important not to track whale sell‑offs but to gauge the amount of new capital from institutions and ETFs. This inflow can offset even a mass exit by large holders," said the CEO of CryptoQuant.
Despite bitcoin's price rise, the analyst calls the current market "sluggish". Most indicators are on the cusp and offer no clear signals, he explained.
At the same time, Ju stressed that a wrong forecast does not mean on‑chain metrics have lost their value.
"Data remain data. Different analysts may interpret them in their own way," the expert added.
He pledged to improve the quality of analysis and account for new factors, including bitcoin's integration with traditional finance.
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