Tested claim

Does MVRV above 3.7 mark the cycle top?

When market value exceeds realised value by more than 3.7 times, the market is at a cycle top.

MVRV: market value divided by realised value0.3x196.5x201020182026MVRVwhen it fired
Where we are now. Today MVRV is 1.50, against a threshold of 3.7. Shaded bands are the 5 occasions the rule fired, the same ones counted in the table below: 2010-07, 2013-03, 2013-11, 2017-12, 2021-01.
No verdict

This rule has fired 5 times. A 40% fall followed within a year on 1 of the 5. On comparable days when it did not fire, a 40% fall followed 28.0% of the time.

PER CENT OF OCCASIONS FOLLOWED BY THE PREDICTED OUTCOMEWhen it fired20.0%When it did not28.0%5 occasions — too few for a verdict
MVRV above 3.7, scored against a transition-matched baseline
Times it fired5 separate occasions, not days
What followed20.0% a 40% fall within 365 days of that close
Happened anyway28.0% comparable days when the rule did not fire
Difference-8.0 pts near zero means the signal added nothing

Where the claim comes from

A widely repeated threshold from on-chain analysis, usually presented with the historical tops marked on a chart.

How we tested it

Trigger: MVRV above 3.7. Scored as a top rule: 40% fall within 365 days.

Only days the rule could have fired are counted. Consecutive triggers within 90 days are one occasion. The baseline excludes each trigger and the 90 days after it, because the aftermath of a signal is not a fair comparison. No verdict is given below 20 occasions.

What the numbers say

Five occasions, 20.0% followed by a 40% fall against a 28.0% baseline. Below the threshold for a verdict, and the point estimate is negative anyway.

What this does not mean

Five occasions tells you nothing either way. The negative sign is not evidence against the rule any more than a positive one would be evidence for it.

What would change the answer

Many more cycles, or a continuous formulation rather than a threshold.

If you cannot time it, the question changes

Most of the claims in this registry cannot be shown to beat a coin flip, and several are worse than one. That is not an argument against holding bitcoin. It is an argument that the decision worth spending effort on is how much to hold, not when to buy.

We are building that second tool. Until it is here, the Where Things Stand page gives the valuation state and what has historically followed readings like today's, with the sample size attached.

Recomputed from the daily public snapshot by fetch/scorecard.py and published as scorecard.json. Method on the methods page; every claim in the scorecard.