TaxShield, CPI Numbers, & AI Browser Wars

View from the Arch #105

October 24, 2025

Read on for some exciting news about a new Arch product!

This Week in Crypto

Big news this week - in partnership with Mark Moss, Arch has released a new product built to help you decrease your tax bill while continuing to grow your Bitcoin stack.

TaxShield is our new product that helps you use secure Bitcoin-backed loans to acquire income-producing mining assets and, most importantly, depreciate 100% of the cost against your taxable income, without ever having to sell your Bitcoin.

The process is easy - 1. You pledge Bitcoin with us to access an overcollateralized loan, 2. You buy hosted miners via Blockware, and 3. You claim 100% bonus depreciation under §168(k) and start receiving miner rewards monthly to your wallet. 

If you'd like to learn more, check out our product page or book a call with the team.

In other news, Bitcoin is trading around $111K, up 1.2% in the last 24 hours. Normally, we’d call that boring, but after the mess of the last two weeks, we’ll take it. 

The government shutdown has now hit its third week, and the SEC is essentially running on life support - causing over 155 crypto ETF filings tracking 35 different digital assets to be stuck in regulatory purgatory (say that 5 times fast!).

  • Multiple XRP ETF deadlines fell between October 18-25, and Grayscale’s filing was due October 18. But with the SEC basically closed for business, those dates came and went with nothing happening. 

  • Not everyone is waiting though - 87-year-old investment giant T. Rowe Price filed an S-1 with the SEC to launch its first-ever crypto ETF - the T. Rowe Price Active Crypto ETF.

As far as the rest of the market goes:

  • ETH is trading at $3,976, up 2.3% on the day. Ethereum spot ETFs had outflows of $311.8M last week, bringing total net inflows to $14.6B with net assets at $25.98B.

  • Solana is up a little over 3% to #192, BNB climbed to $1,135, and XRP rose almost 5% to $2.46, despite the ETF delays.

This Week in TradFi

Wall Street indexes opened higher today, after consumer prices for September came in cooler-than-expected.

  • The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.3% last month after climbing 0.4% in August. 

  • And in the 12 months through September, the CPI increased 3%, after rising 2.9% in August.

  • Traders now expect the Fed to deliver quarter-point interest rate cuts at each of its next three meetings. 

  • As of this morning, the Dow and S&P 500 were up almost 1%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq was up a little over 1%. 

On the international front:

  • European shares hit a new record this week, with the STOXX 600 closing at its highest level ever yesterday.

    • The index is up almost 0.5% for the week and almost 12.5% YTD, driven by energy sector gains after U.S. sanctions on Russia’s biggest oil companies caused crude oil to increase 5%.

  • London’s FTSE 100 reached a new all-time high yesterday as well, closing 0.7% up on the day. 

    • However, UK business activity concerns persist, with manufacturing output falling at its fastest pace in five months. 

  • Gold prices pulled back from record highs, dropping 1.5% to around $4,079/ounce.

    • Despite the dip, gold is still up almost 9% over the month and over 48% YoY. 

  • Asian markets had more of a mixed week, with China’s CSI 300 dropping 2.2% and the Shanghai Composite down almost 1.5% as U.S.-China trade tensions intensify. 

This Week in Tech

Biggest news this week was the AWS outage - we won’t bore you with those details, since we’re sure you lived it.

OpenAI announced its new AI-powered browser, ChatGPT Atlas, on Tuesday.

  • Atlas will first roll out on macOS, with support for Windows, iOS, and Android coming soon.

  • Browsers have quickly become the AI industry’s next battleground, with AI chatbots and agents changing how people get work done online.

  • Two days later, Microsoft released a new feature that builds AI directly into Microsoft Edge’s browser. 

  • The official launch for Edge’s Copilot Mode was in July, but the mode was opt-in and didn’t receive much attention.

  • On Thursday, Microsoft also introduced “Actions” that allow Copilot to fill out forms or book hotels and “Journeys” that lets Copilot trace connections between your open tabs. 

Tesla kicked off the “Magnificent Seven” earnings parade this week, reporting adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.50 vs. expectations of $0.54 - despite revenue climbing 12% to $28.1B.

  • Meanwhile, operating profit dropped 40% from a year ago, with the company trying to forge ahead in a post-EV tax credit world. 

  • Shares were down almost 5% in after-hours trading on Thursday and down almost 2% as of this morning. 

As usual, below are some fundraising announcements, M&A, and tech personnel changes that caught our eye:

Arch is building a next-gen wealth management platform for individuals holding Alternative Assets. Our flagship product is the crypto-backed loan, which allows you to securely and affordably borrow against your crypto.

Disclaimer: None of the above is financial advice, seriously.