Bitcoin and major tokens staged a recovery this week after an initial market dip tied to the US–Israel conflict with Iran. BTC fell to about $63,245 on Sunday before climbing to roughly $73,000 by Thursday, supported in part by renewed demand for US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs, which recorded roughly $1.1 billion in net weekly inflows ahead of Thursday.
Aave Chan Initiative to leave Aave DAO
The Aave Chan Initiative (ACI), a high-profile governance delegate and service provider in the Aave ecosystem, said it will not renew its engagement with the Aave DAO and will wind down operations over the next four months. Founder Marc Zeller said ACI will finish outstanding governance work and hand over infrastructure and responsibilities to the DAO or successor providers. The group pointed to concerns about governance standards and voting dynamics during recent proposals as the reason for its exit, a notable shift as Aave moves its funding plan into a new phase.
Bold Bitcoin forecast from Strive strategist
Joe Burnett, Strive’s VP of Bitcoin strategy, published a report arguing that AI-driven productivity gains could create broad technological deflation that pressures central banks into prolonged monetary expansion, potentially driving Bitcoin to $11 million by Q1 2036. The scenario assumes Bitcoin captures roughly 12% of global financial assets and global wealth compounds near 7% annually, implying about a 176-fold increase in Bitcoin’s market cap to near $230 trillion. Analysts cautioned the forecast is extreme: it implies an annualized return near 53% and would require Bitcoin to become a dominant global reserve asset. Many observers see a more conservative upside — some pointing to a $1 million level — as liquidity and institutional adoption grow and volatility declines.
Stablecoin inflows surge amid policy debate
On-chain stablecoin flows rebounded sharply, with weekly net inflows rising to about $1.7 billion, a 414.5% week-on-week jump according to Messari. That flip pushed the 30-day average to roughly $162.5 million in positive daily inflows. Transaction volumes rose modestly while average transaction sizes fell, signaling renewed issuance demand and stronger retail on-chain activity after a period of outflows. The uptick comes amid US policy discussions over rules for third-party payments of stablecoin yields.
Solv Protocol offers bounty after vault exploit
Solv Protocol, which issues a Bitcoin-pegged token, disclosed that one of its token vaults was drained for roughly $2.7 million. The project offered the attacker a 10% bounty for returning funds, said fewer than ten users were affected, and pledged to cover a loss of 38.05 SolvBTC. Solv is working with security firms and added safeguards to prevent a recurrence. Researchers say the exploit likely exploited a smart-contract flaw that allowed minting excessive tokens; the attacker reportedly repeated the action before swapping tokens for just over 38 SolvBTC. Solv maintains a large on-chain Bitcoin reserve and enables minting of its Bitcoin-pegged token for use across chains.
Bybit’s AI system thwarts large-scale fraud attempts
Bybit reported that its AI-enhanced risk monitoring framework blocked or disrupted more than $300 million in suspected scam-related withdrawals in Q4 2025. The exchange said the system flagged about $500 million in withdrawal requests, issued real-time risk alerts, and prevented many transactions from completing — in some cases leaving funds in users’ accounts after withdrawals were voluntarily canceled. Bybit also identified hundreds of high-risk addresses and blocked millions of credential-stuffing attacks during 2025, actions it says helped protect thousands of users.
DeFi market snapshot
Market trackers show most of the top 100 cryptocurrencies finished the week higher. River (RIVER) led gains with about a 94% jump, followed by Humanity Protocol (H) up roughly 39% for the week. Total value locked across DeFi and other on-chain activity metrics signaled renewed engagement across multiple protocols.
This weekly round-up highlights the main DeFi and crypto developments: a governance shake-up at Aave, a striking (though contested) long-term Bitcoin price projection, stronger stablecoin inflows amid regulatory debate, a high-profile exploit and bounty response, exchange-level fraud prevention gains, and broad market strength among top tokens.