Bitcoin breaks through ceiling.

Moody’s downgrades US credit rating.

This week, credit rating agency Moody’s downgraded the creditworthiness of US government bonds. It’s the third major agency to do so, so it didn’t come as a surprise. Still, it’s another signal that the US’s financial position is deteriorating, mostly due to its rapidly growing mountain of debt.

In practice, this doesn’t change much — at least not yet. US Treasuries are still considered the safest asset in the world, and there simply isn’t an equivalent alternative in the bond market. But moves like this do raise bigger questions: in a world where traditional safe havens become less reliable, bitcoin may increasingly be seen as a long-term alternative.

Bitcoin hits all-time high and enters price discovery.

On Wednesday, bitcoin broke through its previous all-time high of $109,360. That means the asset has entered price discovery — there’s no historical resistance, so the market will now decide where the price goes from here.

Bitcoin usually leads the way for the broader crypto market, and that seems to be happening again. Market sentiment is strong, and the rally is pulling other assets upward with it. Fun fact: 1 bitcoin is now worth more than 1 kilogram of gold.

Aave hits $30 billion, DeFi is coming back.

Aave, the largest lending platform in crypto, hit a major milestone this week: $30 billion in total value locked. Aave was one of the earliest DeFi protocols and is still one of the pillars of decentralized finance today.

This growth shows a renewed interest in DeFi. More and more investors are putting their crypto to work by lending it out and earning interest. It may well be the first signal of a new growth phase for the DeFi sector — and Aave is leading the way.