Benjamin Cowen, one of the vital fashionable and revered cryptocurrency market analysts, has admitted that his flagship market mannequin “is useless.” He did so within the context of Bitcoin’s falling value, whereas additionally falsifying the speculation he has been arguing for since 2019.
Benjamin Cowen is likely one of the most popular analysts, commentators and youtubers within the cryptocurrency house. His Twitter profile has 636,000 followers, whereas his YouTube channel has 734,000 subscribers.
Cowen’s peculiar type of social media administration is the dearth of any revenue from YouTube advertisements or promotion of third-party companies (exchanges, companies, manufacturers or cryptocurrency tokens). His candid, minimalist – he’s been recording his movies in a room with two chairs, a cardboard desk and a laptop computer digital camera for years – and extremely important method has received him an enormous fan base.
“Lengthening cycles are useless” vs. Inventory-to-Circulate
One of many essential hypotheses on which he has constructed his reputation is the declare about Bitcoin’s lengthening cycles. This speculation assumes that:
- there are cycles within the Bitcoin market consisting of accumulation, dynamic uptrend, and sharp decline,
- successive cycles last more,
- successive cycles produce diminishing returns (ROI),
- a long-term mannequin of the BTC market are bands of logarithmic regression, the higher border of which determines the peaks, and the decrease – the bottoms.
Benjamin Cowen has been an ardent proponent of this speculation since not less than 2019. He took his perception within the validity of this mannequin from the truth that, as he claimed, it most closely fits the historic information. In an attention-grabbing dialogue in August 2021, Cowen spoke with another influential analyst, PlanB, the creator of the Bitcoin Inventory-to-Circulate (S2F) mannequin.
It’s broadly believed that the S2F mannequin collapsed in late 2021 as the worth of BTC deviated effectively beneath it. Or not less than, as PlanB himself explains, the so-called Flooring Mannequin, which assumed that Bitcoin would attain a value of $100,000 in December 2021, collapsed.
After the collapse (not less than partially) of the S2F mannequin, many crypto traders and fanatics turned to Cowen’s lengthening cycle mannequin. It appeared that the goal vary of $100-200k was nonetheless achievable for Bitcoin, however would take extra time to succeed in. This narrative was supported by arguments for a rise in market capitalization of the crypto sector, an extended time horizon for institutional traders, and long-term HODL sentiment.
Spell is damaged
Sadly, on Could 8, the spell was damaged! The creator and largest proponent of the lengthening cycles mannequin, Benjamin Cowen, tweeted an equally transient however telling put up. In two brief sentences, he admitted that the mannequin he had been engaged on for years “is useless.” On the similar time, he bittersweetly added that he “hopes it is a sign of a macro backside, however I don’t assume it’s.”
Benjamin Cowen: Is it actually over?
An amazing dialogue heated up beneath the tweet. Benjamin Cowen himself wrote a comment, warning upfront that even a brand new all-time excessive (ATH) earlier than the following halving is not going to change his conclusion:
“Even when we did hit a brand new ATH earlier than the following halving, it doesn’t change the brutality of the present bear market.”
The rationale for this declare is the continuing decline of the Bitcoin value. The analyst believes that it could possibly not be handled as a deepening correction inside the macro bull market. Though he himself argued again in November 2021 that the $69,000 degree was not the height of Bitcoin’s cycle, now he doesn’t hesitate to refute his personal beliefs. He additional added:
“Even when #Bitcoin holds the summer season 2021 lows (which is actually a giant if), no matter comes after it will actually really feel like a brand new cycle.”

Within the feedback beneath the put up, many supporters of the speculation of lengthening cycles couldn’t consider that Benjamin Cowen deserted his flagship narrative. Others requested for particulars or tried to show that this isn’t the tip and the mannequin continues to be right. However the overwhelming majority expressed phrases of assist and admiration for Cowen’s honesty and self-criticism. One in all them was @RKrupa_Official, who wrote:
“What’s superb about you is the truth that you by no means concern to confess that you simply have been fallacious as an alternative pushing the identical narrative. I love this!”
In distinction, an attention-grabbing abstract was posted by person @CardanoHumpback. He straightforwardly said that cycles by no means existed and that Cowen and PlanB fashions have been simply narratives incapable of predicting the longer term. In his opinion, “#crypto will survive as normal.”
Diminishing returns and logarithmic regression stay
Nevertheless, it seems that not all components of Cowen’s mannequin needs to be discarded with the falsification of the speculation of lengthening cycles. In a subsequent tweet, the analyst said that he “doubts anybody will debate” the thesis of Bitcoin’s diminishing returns in future cycles. He added:
“4 cycles in a row the place diminishing returns performed out.”
One other ingredient of Cowen’s mannequin that’s nonetheless legitimate and has an enormous margin for BTC value actions are the logarithmic regression bands. Within the up to date and tweeted model of this chart, we see that the Bitcoin value is approaching the higher sure of the inexperienced band. Traditionally, coming into this vary has been a bear market affirmation.

Nevertheless, as a result of upward nature of the logarithmic regression curve, staying within the inexperienced vary was not essentially related to a continuation of the decline within the BTC value. In each 2012 and 2015, the second of coming into the inexperienced vary gave the impression to be the start of a long-term consolidation.
Bitcoin: Near a macro backside?
Throughout this consolidation, the Bitcoin value not skilled such steep declines because it did shortly after the height. In distinction, reaching the underside of the inexperienced band within the following months was prompted not a lot by Bitcoin’s capitulation as by the rise of the logarithmic band.
If the same scenario have been to play out within the months forward, then maybe Bitcoin is certainly near reaching a macro backside. The very fact stays that we’re witnessing the tip of the grand narrative of the Bitcoin market, of which Benjamin Cowen was the face for years.
Nevertheless, maybe the falsification of his flagship mannequin will not be a dramatic improvement. For years, it has been a approach of rationalizing and navigating the extremely unstable and considerably wild cryptocurrency market. Maybe, quite the opposite, its rejection will permit individuals on this younger monetary world to enter a brand new and extra mature section. As Cowen himself often says, and PlanB has this phrase in his Twitter profile description:
“All fashions are fallacious. Some are helpful.”
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