Bitcoin - Could this be a Left Translated Market Cycle?There has been a lot of speculation that this current Bitcoin market cycle could end as a left translated cycle. This is most likely because Bitcoin surpassed the previous all-time high almost 1 month before the halving. This is the first time in Bitcoins short history that has happened. But, does this alone indicate that this will be an accelerated market cycle?
From the bear market low on November 21st, 2022, it took only 16 months for BTC to set a new all-time high. Looking back though, during the 2011 to 2015 market cycle it took only 15 months from the bear market low for BTC to set a new all-time high. But, even though this cycle was abbreviated at just 3 years 2 months long the peak still occurred just after the 2 year mark.
As you can see by the chart, the new all-time high was set after the halving but this is due to the halving occurring only 376 days after the previous bear market low. Looking at the 2015 to 2018 market cycle, the 2018 to 2022 market cycle, and the current market cycle you can see that the halvings occurred 543 days, 514 days, and 515 days after the previous bear market low.
So, I guess the point I am trying to make is even though the new all-time high that was set on March 14th occurred much sooner than in the previous two cycles that alone doesn't mean that this will result in a left translated cycle. If we look at the elapsed time from the Nov. 2022 bear market low to the halving that just occurred it aligns more closely to the last two market cycles. Both of these market cycles were classic right translated 4-year cycles.
An explaination for the early new all-time high could be due to the hype sorounding the spot Bitcoin ETFs as well as the subsequent trading of them. I'm not going to pretend to know where Bitcoin is going to go from here. It's very possible that we could end up with a market cycle that is completely different than the previous cycles.
At some point I believe that the changing investor demographics will alter the market cycles. Another influence on the market cycles could be macroeconomic forces. Just this morning the May CPI data was released and came out lower than expected. As a result Bitcoin after being down 3.2% yesterday is now up over 3.5% today. But, even though BTC is up big today it is still stuck in the consolidation range and the $72k level still remains a formidable resistance that has rejected BTC five times over the last three months.
But, as of now I am leaning towards this market cycle continuing the trend of the last two as a typical 4-year cycle. That is until I see more evidence that something has changed. If this market cycle is to follow the timing of the previous two I would either expect a prolonged period of range bound price action, lasting into the fall. Or a prolonged period of slowly rising prices lasting into the fall leading to the eventual blast off.
Either way I remain extremely bullish long term and look forward to what lies ahead.
