Bitcoin and the leading cryptocurrencies have recovered this week after the shock waves of the US-Israel conflict with Iran.
Bitcoin (BTC) initially fell to $63,245 on Sunday, before briefly recovering to $73,000 on Thursday, helped by renewed demand from Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which posted weekly net inflows of $1.1 billion through Thursday.
In the broader DeFi space, the Aave governance dispute has continued, with the Aave Chan Initiative (ACI) saying it will not renew its partnership with Aave DAO and plans to cease operations in the next four months.
Aave Chan’s initiative to exit Aave DAO after management clashes over funding
ACI, a key management agent and service provider in the Aave ecosystem, said it will not be renewing its partnership with Aave DAO and plans to terminate within the next four months.
In a statement on Tuesday, ACI founder Mark Zeller said the organization will continue to operate and fulfill outstanding obligations before handing over its infrastructure and responsibilities to DAO or its successor providers.
“The Aave Chan initiative was created for Aave. Without a future in the Aave ecosystem, the name no longer works. ACI will end when our commitments are complete,” Zeller said.
ACI said its decision to pull out was prompted by concerns about governance standards and voting dynamics during the offering, which marks a significant change in Aave’s governance landscape as its funding plan moves into the next phase.
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Strive Strategist Says AI Deflation Could Take Bitcoin To $11 Million By 2036
According to a report by Strive strategist Joe Burnett, artificial intelligence-driven technological deflation could push bitcoin above $10 million within a decade by pressuring central banks to expand the money supply.
Burnett, Bitcoin’s vice president of strategy, said in a report published on Monday that faster productivity growth from AI will lower prices across goods and services, reduce margins and prompt policymakers to respond with sustained monetary expansion. He wrote, his “main case” calls for Bitcoin (BTC) to reach $11 million in the first quarter of 2036.
“My base case for Q1 2036 is $11 million per Bitcoin.”
The forecast is based on a number of aggressive assumptions, including that Bitcoin will increase to approximately 12% of the value of global financial assets, and global wealth will grow by 7% annually until 2036. While Bitcoin currently accounts for about 0.2% of all financial assets, this represents a more than 176-fold increase in Bitcoin’s capitalization over the next three years from a $230 market cap.
Nick Pukrin, co-founder and lead market analyst at education platform Coin Bureau, told Cointelegraph that the prediction means that Bitcoin will become a global reserve asset alongside structurally sound monetary policy in the next decade.
“The prediction means that Bitcoin will be worth about 10 times the current US money supply M2, about four times the US stock market today, and about twice the current global GDP.”
The forecast also assumes a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 53% per year, which is not unprecedented given Bitcoin’s 60% CAGR between 2015 and 2024, but can expect a decline due to market capitalization, Pukrin added.
Shawn Yang, chief analyst at MEXC Research, agreed, warning that the forecast calls for a “huge” 16,318% increase for Bitcoin over the next decade, which is unlikely due to Bitcoin’s reduced volatility.
“The more liquidity flows into the asset from both institutional and retail investors, the more rapid the price will be,” the analyst told Cointelegraph, adding that “the actual price range is at most $1 million.”
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Stablecoin imports return to $1.7 billion as Washington fights revenue rules
According to a new report by Messari, stablecoin weekly net inflows increased last week as onchain activity increased, even as US lawmakers and banking groups debated whether to allow third parties to pay stablecoin yields.
According to a report published on Wednesday, the stablecoin’s weekly net inflows increased to $1.7 billion, a 414.5% increase for the week.
The recovery reduced the 30-day average to $162.5 million in positive daily inflows. The report said that transaction volume increased by 6.3%, while the average transaction volume continued to decline, reflecting renewed demand for stablecoin issuance and “reinvigorated” onchain activity among retail investors.
Stablecoin flow tracks the net new stablecoins that enter circulation after accounting for purchases.
The increase follows a weaker period earlier in the year. Messari data showed weekly inflows of $249 million two weeks ago and net outflows of $4.4 billion in the 30 days to February 18.
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Solv Protocol offers a 10% bonus after $2.7 million is spent
Bitcoin-based decentralized financial platform Solv Protocol says one of its token vaults was used for $2.7 million and offered the attacker a 10% reward in return for the stolen funds.
Solv said in an X message on Thursday that less than 10 of its users were affected, but it is covering the loss of 38.05 Solv Protocol BTC (SolvBTC), a token linked to Bitcoin (BTC).
The project added that it is taking steps to prevent the attack from happening again and is investigating the exploit with crypto security companies Hypernative, SlowMist and CertiK.
Solv allows users to stake Bitcoin for Solv Protocol BTC, which they can then use to lend, borrow or contribute to other blockchains. The project has 24,226 Bitcoins worth more than $1.7 billion and claims to be the largest Bitcoin reserve onchain.
Solv has not confirmed how the exploit occurred, but two crypto security researchers said it was caused by a vulnerability in one of Solv’s smart contracts that allowed an attacker to extort an excessive amount of tokens used in the protocol.
According to CD Security co-founder Chris Dior, the attacker exploited the vulnerability 22 times before exchanging hundreds of millions of tokens for 38 SolvBTC.
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Bybit claims new fraud system stopped $300 million in withdrawals in Q4 2025
Bybit said it blocked or terminated more than $300 million worth of suspected fraud-related funds in the fourth quarter of 2025 after implementing an AI risk monitoring system designed to flag malicious transactions before they exit the exchange.
In a company blog post, Bybit said its system flagged nearly $500 million in withdrawal requests during the quarter, and that more than 4,000 users were “protected” after the platform warned of a real risk or blocked transactions altogether.
David Zong, head of Bybit’s risk control team, told Cointelegraph that most of the $300 million total reflects that users voluntarily canceled after seeing the warnings, meaning the funds remained in their accounts rather than demanding refunds or compensation.
“Because the withdrawal was stopped before it was completed, the funds were not charged or refunded. They always remained in the users’ accounts.”
Bybit said the system also identified 350 high-risk investment fraud addresses, which protected 8,000 users from potential withdrawal losses in the previous quarter. It also prevented more than 3 million data loading attacks attempted by hackers during the year 2025.
Cryptocurrency hackers will lose $3.4 billion by 2025 as hackers focus on major crypto assets.
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DeFi Market Overview
According to Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, most of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week in the green.
The River Token (RIVER) was the biggest gainer of the week, rising 94%, followed by the Humanity Protocol (H) token, which rose 39% over the past week.
Thanks for reading our recap of this week’s impressive DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education about this dynamic space.
