Halving has always been the center around which the Bitcoin price has moved in the past: post-halving surge, and then massive drop.
However, this tradition seems to have changed now that the apex crypto is getting institutional backing to a massive degree.
“It’s not officially over until we see positive returns in 2026. But I think we will, so let’s say this: I think the 4-year cycle is over,” Matthew Hougan, chief investment officer at Bitwise Asset Management, told CNBC.
With the market now showing unpredictability, uncertainty will surely be around which asset to consider the best crypto to buy now. As news swirls about high-cap assets breaking out of their historic patterns, traditional fundamentals may not hold up as strongly as they did before.
What Has Happened to the Bitcoin Cycle?
A traditional Bitcoin cycle is a four-year pattern for the Bitcoin price. Halving occurs, the amount of BTC that can be mined reduces, which leads to the price surging to new all-time highs a few months after halving. What then follows is a Bitcoin winter, which drops the BTC price to half its then all-time high (possibly lower), sinking the entire crypto market ship and creating a “buying the dip” opportunity.
The crypto winter of 2022 is the freshest example of that happening, in which the market saw Bitcoin dropping to lows after it reached its then ATH level in mid-2021.
However, after the 2024 halving, the new trend that has emerged is: pre-halving surge, post-halving drop, followed by a surge to an all-time high and consolidation.
This is a breakout from the previous cycle, which generally took 12 to 18 months for a new all-time high to arrive.
What has bolstered this pattern breaking, one wonders, and this time, the answers are simple. The US government’s approval of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds is the first thing that comes to mind, in addition to multiple other “blow-ups in crypto”:
- Crash of ICOs in 2018
- Collapse of crypto exchange FTX
- SEC dropping some cases against crypto firms
- Formulation of new crypto laws
- Launch of Bitcoin strategic reserves
- Public companies accumulating Bitcoin as part of their new strategy
Crash of crypto ICOs in 2018 was an unprecedented event, showing that people weren’t keen on experimentation and did not want to focus on assets that didn’t provide much. The collapse of FTX strengthened people’s belief that CEXs aren’t as secure as they advertise. As the SEC dropped cases against firms, people realized that the government is easing on crypto. During this time, the formulation of crypto laws, such as the GENIUS Act, and the launch of Bitcoin strategic reserves further bolstered people’s belief that crypto is going mainstream.
This belief was then further consolidated as public companies like MicroStrategy and MetaPlanet went almost “all-in” on accumulating BTC.
Cycle Is Over but Not Dead – Matt Hougan
While all the factors have led to ending the traditional Bitcoin cycle, it is too soon to say that the cycle is dead. A dead cycle would have no chance of repeating, and to confirm the cycle’s death, Bitcoin would need to go through major price action between Q3 2025 and Q1 2026.
According to Hougan, this is because “the price action in this cycle has been heavily subdued compared to the previous one.”
At the time of writing, Bitcoin has surged past its previous resistance at $117K to break above the $118K level, forming a “Three White Soldiers” pattern on the hourly chart. Its current market cap is above $2.35 trillion.
What Happens to the Rest of the Market if Bitcoin’s Breakout from the Traditional Cycle Is Genuine?
Market rotation could accelerate, which means that Bitcoin’s breakout from its existing pattern could cause the altcoin season to arrive faster.
Secondly, Ethereum could become a cycle leader rather than a follower, which would then lead to meme coins and narrative tokens rallying earlier than before. Also, presales and early-stage projects would become more valuable. People may no longer wait for an altcoin cycle trigger, but rather act now.
Best Crypto to Buy Now: These High-Cap Coins and Presale Picks Could Explode in 2025
Ethereum
Ethereum has historically followed Bitcoin’s price action, but after “The Merge” and adopting a fully Proof-of-Stake ecosystem, it has broken from that pattern, which has led to the ETH price not reaching its all-time high at the same time Bitcoin did.
However, the altcoin season is strong, and Ethereum’s recent flurry of technological updates and institutional attention, thanks to ETFs, paints a good picture of its future.
Ethereum has broken above its $4K resistance, creating a bullish engulfing pattern, and is less than a percent away from reclaiming its all-time high.
Furthermore, Ali Martinez predicted a couple of days ago that if Ethereum is able to break through the $4K level, it could reach closer to the $6.4K mark.
Bitcoin Hyper
In contrast to Ethereum, Bitcoin Hyper is a low-cap presale pick that carries the traits of both Bitcoin and Ethereum. The project aims to provide the world’s first L2 solution to Bitcoin, forging it into something more than just a “store of value” so that its price isn’t beholden to mere speculation.
The L2 solution it delivers is Ethereum-powered, developed by integrating the Lightning Network, Solana Virtual Machine, and a Canonical Bridge.
In terms of the image shown, Bitcoin Hyper is inspired by Pepe themes. Its main mascot is $HYPER (also the ticker symbol of the token), which is a Pepe in a Flash-like costume. While there are no jokes surrounding this image, it is clear that through the mascot, Bitcoin Hyper aims to bring meme coin investors to a utility-centric ecosystem.
Considering Bitcoin is showing signs of breaking out of its historical patterns, Bitcoin Hyper could be the first presale to experience the most growth post-launch.
Analysts at 99Bitcoins are bullish on Bitcoin Hyper, and so are many investors on Twitter Spaces. One in particular, Kevlar, has even called Bitcoin Hyper a “Bitcoin revolution.”
As far as presales go, Bitcoin Hyper could be one of the most exciting. Being inspired by existing token narratives means investors would feel familiar with this project, which can be more than enough to give it a boost in both the long and short term.
Solana
The Solana price action has also been volatile as of late, and from the looks of it, it has already broken away from following Bitcoin’s price action. This “Ethereum Killer” that made its mark on the market thanks to its L1 solution and meme coins is currently trading around the $182 level. And it’s market cap of just above $98 billion.
The daily chart shows that Solana has started following a rising channel, and if the momentum keeps up, it could break past the $200 mark by the last week of August 2025. Solana’s expansion into tokenized assets with S&P 500 perpetuals through the launch of GMXSOL has likely helped with the current price action.
Furthermore, Ali Martinez says that SOL’s recent price action is a classic case of breaking out of the cup-and-handle pattern, which could result in the Ethereum Killer breaking past the $1.3K mark.
Snorter
Snorter is another meme coin presale that could gain from Bitcoin breaking out of its traditional cycle. Since this could indicate massive growth in meme coins, Snorter’s trading bot could act as a vehicle for investors to find high-performing meme assets.
Developed for Telegram, Snorter is a Solana meme coin trading bot equipped with automated sniping tools as well as scam protection features.
It features honeypot protection tools as well as rug pull protection modules. Copy trading is another core feature it offers, through which it takes advantage of Telegram’s social messaging services.
These perks align with the narrative Snorter aims to convey with its mascot, an aardvark featuring a long snout. The act of snorting nutritious prey has been equated with the power of a bot to find the best meme coins.
Snorter also plans to go multichain, which means it would support meme coins beyond Solana chains. As the meme coin narrative continues to thrive, Snorter could also be considered the best crypto to buy now.
Analysts such as ClayBro recently revealed that even Google AI has predicted that Snorter could bring significant gains in 2025.
TOKEN6900
Bitcoin’s potential breakout from its existing patterns could reinforce what people have already believed about cryptocurrencies: fundamentals don’t matter. Running with this narrative is TOKEN6900, a SPX6900-inspired meme coin that combines the internet humor and brain-rot narrative of the current generation with the nostalgic aesthetics of the 90s.
What comes out as a result is a meme coin that does not want to follow the crowd and actively rallies against believing in traditional market indicators. It embraces a “fun” token spirit, and for this meme coin, the most “based” way to trade is through low-effort memes that could mobilize the community through collective degeneracy.
The “memes” are AI-slop content that don’t make much sense, staying true to the “brain-rot” narrative. However, behind all the strange and unexplained comedic themes, there could be a utility that the community may only see once the presale concludes.
Or, it could just be wishful thinking, and the community will get exactly what TOKEN6900 portrays itself as: a low-effort meme coin aiming to go viral in the short term so that it can create a community capable of sustaining itself through degenerate humor for a long time.
Conclusion
While Bitcoin’s potential breakout from its previous cyclical pattern is only a rumor now, it may not remain so for long if, as Matt Hougan predicted, the BTC price reaches new highs by the end of Q1 2026. This could mean more attention for altcoins and more traction for crypto presales, among which could be the best crypto picks that provide the most gains.
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