What is Market cycle?
The observed pattern of multi-year expansions and contractions in Bitcoin's price, often anchored to the halving schedule.
Bitcoin has had a handful of cycles that look broadly similar in shape, which invites the conclusion that they are periodic. Four observations is a very small sample for that conclusion.
Cycle framing is a reasonable heuristic for expecting volatility in both directions. It is not a schedule, and treating it as one has cost people money in both directions.
A pattern with four instances is a hypothesis, not a law. Cycle-based date targets are numerology with a chart attached.
Related terms
Halving
The scheduled 50% reduction of the block subsidy, occurring every 210,000 blocks — roughly every four years.
MarketsBull market
A sustained period of rising prices and strong sentiment.
MarketsBear market
A sustained period of falling prices and weak sentiment. In Bitcoin these have historically lasted a year or…
MarketsStock-to-flow
A model relating an asset's existing supply to its annual new production, applied to Bitcoin to argue for…
This definition is part of the Bitcoin Logical glossary. For the fuller explanation, start with Learn, or see the live numbers on The Bitcoin Signal.