Bitcoin’s price action is no longer trading with a sense of euphoria, nor is it safely above the levels that kept bulls confident earlier in the year. Instead, the leading cryptocurrency has now moved into a DCA zone, which is a region that has appeared in past cycles when sentiment was at its lowest and long-term opportunity was quietly forming.
There are two sides to the pattern, and the bullish side says BTC now seems to be forming an opportunity for accumulation before another rally.
Bitcoin Returns To The Zone Where Fear Usually Peaks
Crypto analyst Ardizor noted on X that Bitcoin has now touched the same dollar-cost averaging zone that appeared before major recoveries in previous cycles. There’s also a familiar pattern going on with BTC right now: the market declares Bitcoin dead, the price enters the long-term DCA accumulation region, and the next rally eventually takes the cryptocurrency to a new all-time high.
The candlestick price chart, which is shown below, tracks BTC on the monthly timeframe and compares three major cycle structures. Back in 2019, Bitcoin’s price entered a depressed DCA accumulation area after the 2017 peak around $19,000, which dragged the price down by more than 83%. That zone later preceded the run to the 2021 all-time high around $69,000.
The 2022 episode was shorter in duration but structurally identical. The FTX exchange collapse in November of that year produced a wave of forced selling, and Bitcoin fell to around $15,500 from its 2021 peak above $69,000.
However, BTC bulls eventually broke through the fear, and the best of accumulators were able to ride alongside an almost 600% rally above $100,000, and the cryptocurrency eventually rallied to a new high above $126,000 in October 2025.
Where Does Bitcoin Go From Here?
The question now is whether BTC can hold this DCA zone long enough for the cycle structure to turn bullish. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $62,800, which is still around the curved support shown on the monthly chart above. As long as BTC continues to respect that long-term structure, the comparison with the 2019 and 2022 accumulation phases will still make sense.
However, ETF flows and on-chain signals are adding bearish pressure to counter the bulls accumulating at this point. For instance, Bitcoin’s Realized Cap has declined by roughly $12 billion from its mid-May peak. Another analysis of Bitcoin’s PnL Index, which combines a few other data metrics, shows that Bitcoin has yet to reach a bottom, although it is currently in a transition phase.
However, that does not invalidate the DCA-zone argument. In fact, it may strengthen the comparison with past cycles. The 2019 and 2022 accumulation zones did not appear during calm conditions, but when liquidity was thin, and traders were still expecting another bottom.
