Here we are at the end of this week and this was another bumpy quick ride in crypto and cough-cough AI. Crypto never sleeps and only gets louder.
Top Gainers and Losers of the Week
AERO - let the charge with a significant rise of 13.45%, with the price of $1.44
Hype - followed with a 9%, price is currently $48.33
MNT - jumped up 8.45%, reaching the price of $1.18
OKB - took the hardest hit this week, sliding 4.29% with a price of $94.79
XMR - follows it with a drift of 2.63% and price of $239.19
CRV - down on 2.32% to $0.9137
Meme of the Week
Algorand’s 2025 Roadmap. Making Web3 Simple
In July 2025, the Algorand Foundation presented its 2025+ roadmap to simplify blockchain adoption and make Web3 more user-friendly. The plan focuses on four pillars: reinforcing Web3’s core values, improving user experience, accelerating innovation, and delivering consistent protocol upgrades.
Sounds very, very interesting, though let's see what application it consists of. Key initiatives include Project King Safety, aiming for a Q4 2025, revamping fees and network incentives, and a community-elected xGov Council to oversee grant proposals. The foundation piece has already decreased from 60% to 20% over time, signaling for more staking rewards. Algorand is also rolling out a peer-to-peer gossip network, moving the blockchain closer to full decentralization.
Another aspect of this would be an AlgoKit 4.0 coming up slightly later in early 2026. It is offering solutions for Developers like composable smart contract libraries, multi-language support (Rust, Swift, Kotlin), and a new key-value storage system called Schema. Its AI integration will assist coding for faster dApp development. For enterprises and users, Algorand is launching Intermezzo middleware for easier blockchain integration and Rocca Wallet, a white-label wallet with passkey logins, fee abstraction, and decentralized identity.
In their blogs and announcements, they are really positive about the upcoming changes and how the community is reacting to them. Web3 is making a huge leap ahead, and hopefully, somebody is stepping up to explain and implement it. Finally.
The Teen Who Stole $243M in Bitcoin and Apparently Never Stopped
Back in August 2024, 19-year-old Veer Chetal and two accomplices executed one of the largest individual crypto heists ever, stealing roughly 4,100 BTC (~$243 million at the time). They impersonated Google and Gemini tech support to get victims to reset two-factor authentication and share private keys, even livestreaming the theft in real time. Unfortunately, over time such scams are getting only more common and innovative.
The story of Veer Chetal has some extension, though. After pleading guilty, Chetal continued scamming, with a $2 million theft through an online gambling platform, leading to his re-arrest when authorities traced his IP. Blockchain investigator ZachXBT tracked the funds as they moved through multiple exchanges and mixers, showing how even massive transactions can be obscured. This isn’t just teen drama; it’s a warning. Multi-factor authentication, cold storage, and cautious wallet management are essential, especially when hackers might be streaming their exploits live. Crypto is truly beyond the boundaries of just the web and virtual, when even after being arrested, your activities can't be fully and instantly stopped right on and forever.
Pantera Capital - Betting Big and Calling Bitcoin
So, this might be the most expected and surprising turn of events, depending on how deeply you were tracking it up to this point. Pantera Capital is proving that they don’t just play in crypto; they actually know something about it. This August 2025, the firm committed $300 million to Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) companies, aiming to outperform traditional ETFs by leveraging staking, yield farming, and structured finance. Their investments aren’t small-time either: BitMine Immersion Technologies, a recipient of Pantera’s capital, now controls 1.15 million ETH (~$4.9B), making it the largest Ethereum treasury globally, likely supporting the recent trend we see on the market.
What is most interesting happened years before, Bitcoin price. Their 2022 Bitcoin price prediction of $117,482 for August 11, 2025 landed almost perfectly, within a single percent of difference. The firm attributes its accuracy to careful study of Bitcoin halving cycles, highlighting how understanding supply dynamics and historical patterns can turn crypto volatility into informed insights. Interestingly, some concerns of this no more being a thing have recently shown up.
Regardless, lucky, strategic, or late to come, their activity is signaling the maturity of institutional crypto finance. Not without obstructions, but we are truly seeing how big treasury firms are connecting themselves with the crypto in live time using their knowledge.
Musk’s Grok Bot Sparks Controversy
Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot has been under scrutiny after multiple controversial outputs. In August 2025, The Times of India reported it was temporarily suspended from X for claiming Israel and the U.S. were committing “genocide” in Gaza. Upon reinstatement, Grok implied Musk and xAI censored it, though Musk called it a “dumb error”. Happens, right?
Earlier, The Guardian noted Grok produced antisemitic outputs, including praise for Hitler, after Musk tried making it “less politically correct”, while Al Jazeera highlighted backlash and post deletions. It was somewhat a hit in crypto, though that doesn't make it better. And even more illustrative is that Grok’s “Imagine” feature allows users to create sexually suggestive images in “Spicy” mode, prompting The Verge to report consumer safety groups urging the FTC to investigate xAI.
Despite controversies, we have to move along, as always. Grok is a lens into the challenges of mainstream AI adoption, where ethics, public scrutiny, and user feedback drive evolution.
Gunel Ismayilova
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