Cathie Wood Says Bitcoin’s 4-Year Cycle is Breaking as Institutions Steady the Market
Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood says Bitcoin’s well-known four-year cycle could not outline the asset’s long-term conduct, arguing that institutional adoption is reshaping all the pieces from volatility to how deep future drawdowns could be.
Speaking with Fox Business on Tuesday, Wood said Bitcoin’s sharp crashes, typically 75% to 90% in earlier years, have gotten much less frequent as massive monetary gamers accumulate the asset.
“The volatility’s happening,” she mentioned, including that establishments “are going to stop rather more of a decline.” Wood advised that “we could have seen the low a few weeks in the past.”
Her view challenges greater than a decade of market expectations. Bitcoin’s cycle has traditionally adopted its halving events, block reward reductions that happen roughly each 4 years.
The most up-to-date halving on April 20, 2024, lower the mining reward to three.125 BTC, traditionally a set off for provide squeezes and powerful rallies.
However, Wood argues that the market’s conduct has shifted, as Bitcoin trades extra like a risk-on asset, transferring in keeping with equities and actual property somewhat than performing as a hedge.
“Now, gold is extra of a risk-off asset,” she mentioned, noting that buyers use it to guard in opposition to geopolitical shocks.
Ark has continued including crypto publicity, lately shopping for extra shares of Coinbase, Circle, and its personal Ark 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB).
A Growing Debate: Is the Four-Year Cycle Finished?
Wood’s feedback land in the center of a wider business debate. Analysts throughout main establishments say Bitcoin not responds to halving cycles the method it as soon as did.
Earlier this week, Standard Chartered mentioned ETF shopping for has decreased the halving’s affect as a value driver.
Analyst Geoffrey Kendrick wrote that the sample of costs peaking 18 months after every halving is “not legitimate,” reducing the financial institution’s 2025 value goal from $200,000 to $100,000.
On social media, the debate has been intense since late July.
Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan and CryptoQuant founder Ki Young Ju both said institutional inflows have successfully erased the conventional cycle. “The cycle is lifeless,” Ju wrote.
For years, Bitcoin adopted a rhythm: accumulation, a rally tied to halving results, a peak, then a multi-year downturn.

But this time, after hitting $122,000 in July, analysts say Bitcoin’s conduct appears to be like completely different, slower, steadier, and fewer tied to retail hypothesis.
Sentora government Patrick Heusser pointed to the Bitcoin Power Law model, which views value progress as a part of a long-term curve influenced by time somewhat than strict four-year home windows.
Halvings nonetheless matter, he mentioned, however solely as interruptions inside a broader pattern.
“Daily provide decreased by solely 450 BTC,” he famous, calling it marginal in comparison with Bitcoin’s trillions in market worth and the billions flowing into spot ETFs.
Institutional accumulation, from ETFs, company treasuries, and new regulated merchandise, is broadly seen as the greatest driver reshaping the market. These consumers not often exit positions rapidly, locking up provide in a method that smooths out volatility.
Bitcoin’s Market Structure Still Mirrors Past Cycles, Glassnode Argues
Still, some corporations say the cycle stays intact. In August, Glassnode published data showing that the present cycle’s construction mirrors earlier ones, together with long-term holder conduct and late-cycle demand softening.
Despite institutional involvement, Glassnode argued that Bitcoin’s timing nonetheless aligns carefully with previous multi-year peaks.
As specialists debate whether or not the cycle is damaged or just evolving, most agree that buyers ought to anticipate a market outlined by longer tendencies as a substitute of dramatic, quick swings.

Analysts say crashes could also be shallower, nearer to 30% to 50% as a substitute of the deep drawdowns of previous years, however rallies might also stretch over longer durations.
Strategies constructed round exact halving timing could not work with the similar accuracy.
Macro analyst Lyn Alden recently said Bitcoin’s current market conditions lack the euphoria wanted for a significant collapse, including that broader financial forces now dictate the asset’s motion.
She expects Bitcoin to reclaim $100,000 by 2026, however warned that the path there might be uneven.
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Once a dependable sample, the four-year Bitcoin cycle could not maintain. Here’s what modified, and why it issues now greater than ever.
Standard Chartered analyst Geoffrey Kendrick says Bitcoin’s dip beneath $100,000 could signify the final shopping for alternative at these ranges.
Glassnode evaluation suggests Bitcoin’s 4-year cycle stays intact regardless of institutional adoption difficult “cycle dying” narrative.