Digital gold rose above $113,000; Donald Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao; miners’ debt is up 500% since the start of the year—and other highlights of the week.
A firm market
On Monday the leading cryptocurrency opened at $108,000; by Tuesday it had tested $114,000.
The cheer was short-lived, with a mild pullback through the workweek. But Friday’s data showing higher US inflation bolstered investor confidence.
In September the consumer price index increased by 0.3%, down from 0.4% a month earlier. Year on year, unadjusted, the reading rose to 3.0%.
Traders put the odds of the Fed lowering the target range for the key rate to 3.75–4% at its 29 October meeting at 98.3%.
Source: CME FedWatch Tool.
By Sunday evening bitcoin was back above $113,000. The asset added 5.5% over the week, with market capitalisation reaching $2.26 trillion.
4-hour chart of BTC/USDT on Binance. Source: TradingView.
The broader crypto market followed suit. Ethereum hovered around $4,000, and BNB around $1,100.
Source: CoinGecko.
Among the top ten by market value, XRP stood out, adding 11% over seven days.
Total crypto market value reached $3.92 trillion. Bitcoin’s dominance is 55.7%, Ethereum’s 12.4%.
Crypto Fear and Greed Index stands at 40, up from 29 last week.
Source: alternative.me.
CZ’s pardon
On 22 October US President Donald Trump signed an order pardoning Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ).
Answering reporters’ questions, Mr Trump also noted that many had supported CZ and had long urged that the charges be dropped.
word https://t.co/JuVpuy8P0H
— CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) October 24, 2025
“President Trump exercised his constitutional authority, pardoning Mr. Zhao, who was prosecuted by the [Joe] Biden administration as part of their war on cryptocurrencies,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
CZ himself thanked the president and pledged to support the United States in developing the crypto industry.
Most of the community welcomed the news, though there were dissenters. Representatives of the US Democratic Party criticised the decision, and Congresswoman Maxine Waters accused Mr Trump of corruption.
Senator Elizabeth Warren joined in. She stressed that CZ was pardoned for lobbying the president’s crypto projects.
The entrepreneur pushed back, noting that Warren “cannot get the facts straight when making a public statement about the charges brought against a person”.
Zhao was released from prison in 2024 after serving a four-month sentence. Under an agreement with the Justice Department he agreed to pay a $50 million fine and step down as Binance’s CEO.
The exchange permanently barred CZ from management, but current CEO Richard Teng noted that Zhao remains the platform’s largest shareholder. Now, however, journalists have raised the prospect of the founder returning to the company’s leadership and reviving its American arm.
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An AI browser
Another headline of the week was the launch of OpenAI’s Atlas AI browser. The product includes a built-in ChatGPT chatbot and virtual assistants.
Source: chatgpt.com.
The app is already available for download but for now supports only macOS.
Atlas is built on the Chromium stack, allowing imports from Chrome or Safari of history, bookmarks, saved passwords and even open tabs.
Its signature feature is an “Ask ChatGPT” button. It lets users query the AI about the contents of the active tab.
An Atlas memory function remembers which sites and topics a user has viewed.
The tool can also switch to assistant mode to perform tasks autonomously. For example, the AI can book a hotel or place an order in an online shop.
Source: chatgpt.com.
In a separate article ForkLog tested Atlas and reviewed early feedback.
Miners’ debts
In September the profitability of mining the leading cryptocurrency fell by more than 7%. Daily revenue per 1 EH/s of hashrate slid from $56,000 to $52,000.
Jefferies analysts cited a 2% monthly dip in bitcoin’s price and roughly a 9% increase in network computing power among the main drivers.
Source: Hashrate Index.
Following the broad market correction on 11 October, hashprice has held below $49 per PH/s per day.
Despite lower mining margins, miners’ shares are surging. By mid-October the market capitalisation of the 15 largest US industry players reached $90 billion. Since 15 September Bitfarms has risen 162%, Canaan 149% and CleanSpark 125%.
At the same time, VanEck experts recorded a 500% year-on-year jump in bitcoin…