Bitcoin tested $82,000, the Bank of Russia launched the digital ruble, OpenAI and Anthropic unveiled new flagship models, and more from the past week.
Bitcoin climbed to $82,000
The leading cryptocurrency closed August with a gain of about 24% and entered September with similar momentum. Overnight on September 3–4, the asset’s price rose to $82,000; Ethereum climbed to $2,500.
The sharp move higher triggered $536 million in position liquidations, including $457 million from traders who had bet on a decline.
By September 6, bitcoin had pulled back to $79,700, up just 0.77% for the week.
One driver of the rally was record inflows into spot bitcoin ETFs, which took in $730 million on September 3 — the most since January. Over five trading sessions, they attracted $986.8 million. Ethereum-based funds saw $218 million in inflows.
At the same time, bitcoin’s correlation with gold reached its highest level since 2020, while its link to equities weakened, said Andrei Dragos, head of Bitwise’s European research unit.
Analysts are not yet calling a clear reversal. Fidelity suggested the bottom may have formed in July. If historical cyclicality holds, a new low is possible around November.
Ethereum hovered near $2,500 — at the time of writing, the token trades around $2,490. Other altcoins showed more notable moves last week, including privacy token Zcash, which broke above $1,000 for the first time since 2018.
Chainlink’s LINK rose above $12, gaining 50% over the month amid partnerships with Bottomline and the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The digital asset market’s capitalization rose from $2.66 trillion to $2.7 trillion. Bitcoin’s dominance for the week was 59.6% (a week earlier 59.2%), and Ethereum’s share was 11.1%.
The Fear and Greed Index increased from 69 to 75, while the altseason index remains at 40 out of 100.
Bank of Russia launches the digital ruble
On August 31, the Bank of Russia announced the start of digital ruble use. From September 1, major banks and retailers opened infrastructure for transactions with the new form of the national currency.
Individuals can open an account on the central bank’s platform via apps of participating financial institutions. An individual or company has one such account; a sole proprietor has two — one as an individual and one for business.
Individuals can top up a digital ruble account from bank accounts by up to 300,000 rubles per month; there is no limit for businesses. Transfers, purchases, refunds and budget payments are available. Transactions are free for individuals; tariffs for companies and sole proprietors will take effect in 2027.
That same week, Moscow hosted a congress of the Association of Organizations Exchanging Digital Currency. The group is preparing to obtain self-regulatory organization (SRO) status. It is drafting industry guidelines, maintaining a participant registry and developing the basis of future standards.
To operate under the regulated regime, exchangers must have at least 15 million rubles in capital, be listed in the central bank’s registry and join the relevant SRO. The transition period runs through June 30, 2027.
In a comment to ForkLog, Shard chief analyst Maxim Bokov suggested large financial institutions will be the first to meet the new requirements. In his view, other participants will evaluate their experience before deciding.
What to discuss with friends?
- Tesla launched driverless Cybercabs in Texas.
- In the U.S., a proposal was made to ban the creation of artificial superintelligence.
- A Briton recovered 61 BTC after 12 years.
- Mathematicians taught AI models to communicate without words.
Major banks to form a joint stablecoin issuer
On September 2, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citi and 18 other financial institutions agreed to set up a joint company to issue stablecoins. The first asset will be a token pegged to the U.S. dollar.
The structure is slated to launch in the second half of 2026, subject to closing conditions. The dollar stablecoin is expected in the first half of 2027. Participants named the euro as the next priority, followed by other G7 currencies.
The tokens are expected to be used for cross-border payments, settlements with digital assets, and across wholesale, institutional and retail markets.
The initiative must comply with the U.S. GENIUS Act and the European MiCA regulation where applicable.
Several project parameters remain undisclosed: the banks did not name the network for the asset, reserve structure, redemption mechanism or issuer governance.
Public miners cut hash rate by 15%
In the first half of the year, publicly traded mining companies reduced their effective hash rate by roughly 56 EH/s, or 15%. The estimate covers firms included in TheEnergyMag’s study.
The authors linked the trend to repurposing facilities for artificial intelligence.
At the same time, in the second quarter the disclosed revenue of comparable firms from AI and HPC rose 52% versus the first quarter.
For participants furthest along in the transition, revenue from hosting compute equipment and cloud AI services exceeded income from the winding-down mining business for the first time.
Retrofitting requires significant investment. According to TheEnergyMag, for six infrastructure providers with recurring HPC revenue, aggregate capital expenditures were almost 15 times their combined revenue over the period.
Analysts also noted differences in revenue sources. Colocation typically involves multi‑year contracts, sometimes with customers paying for electricity. Bitcoin mining revenue depends on the cryptocurrency’s price, network difficulty and transaction fees.
Also on ForkLog:
- Crypto companies asked the SEC to speed up ETF launches.
- Binance signed three memoranda with Kazakhstan authorities.
- Harneys and droppRWA will test tokenized catastrophe bonds.
- AI created a new job market for freelancers.
OpenAI and Anthropic released new models
On September 3, OpenAI released its flagship model GPT-6 Astra. Deployment began for a limited group of organizations under the Trusted Access program. Access was then opened to ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise users, as well as via the OpenAI API and Amazon Bedrock.
Alongside the release, the company announced the $1 billion Daybreak for Frontline Defenders program. The amount includes subsidized access to models and Daybreak products, training, technical support and partner programs.
The initiative will first launch in the U.S. for water and power grid operators, state and municipal authorities, regional and local banks, nonprofits and open-source developers.
“Defenders have a window of opportunity: it is narrowing, and AI needs to be used to close security gaps before attackers,” OpenAI said.
Two days earlier, on September 2, Anthropic introduced Claude Fable 5.1 and Claude Mythos 5.1. The former is available to all users; the latter is limited to partners and includes dedicated safety settings for cybersecurity and biology.
The cost of using Fable 5.1 fell by an average of 25%; for complex tasks, savings reached 45% due to cheaper cache reads.
This fall, the AI startup will launch Enterprise Frontier Safeguards, allowing enterprise customers to store data in their own cloud.
According to the developers, the model identified the cause of a systemic failure at investment firm Millennium that engineers had been unable to fix for five years, and built a map of Venus from 30‑year‑old NASA data with 25% higher altitude accuracy than before.
Another Fable 5.1 result stirred debate. Anthropic said the model deciphered a 1653 cryptogram in 44 minutes. Independent specialists found ten discrepancies in the proposed solution; as of publication there is no academic confirmation.
What else to read?
We explored how AI agents learned to poison each other and why the “Avalanche” mechanic applies to agent systems.
In the new issue of “Quantum & After,” we explain who pays for the quantum race, how much it costs and how to tell real progress from marketing.
We examined what will remain of traditional professions in the AI era.
In a new episode of “Deconstruction,” we discussed the week’s main events and a future where AI doesn’t fire people — it simply stops hiring them.
