Bitcoin produces an unusual amount of public data. Every transaction, every block, every coin’s age and movement sits on an open ledger that anyone can query. Markets built on quarterly reports would consider this an embarrassment of riches. Most coverage ignores it anyway and reports the price, which is the one number that explains the least on its own.
This section is the radar screen proper: the metrics that describe what the bitcoin market is doing underneath the price, how to read them, and what they do not tell you. It is written for readers who already know what bitcoin is. If you are not there yet, start with Understanding Bitcoin.
The cycle and its history
Bitcoin’s market history organizes itself around the halving, the programmed supply cut that arrives roughly every four years. The Bitcoin Cycle, Explained lays out the pattern across four of them, and what has changed now that ETFs and institutions sit in the flow. Bitcoin Halving Dates is the reference table: every halving, its block height, its numbers and what followed. Bitcoin Price History compiles every major cycle, crash and recovery in one table, because the drawdowns are the part of the history most often edited out.
Reading the chain
Bitcoin On-Chain Analysis is the overview of the discipline: which metrics matter, which are noise. From there the guides go one instrument at a time. Realized Price and MVRV covers the valuation gauges built from the ledger itself. Who Owns the Most Bitcoin maps supply across cohorts, from lost coins to ETFs. Long Term vs Short Term Holders explains the cohort split analysts quote constantly, and Exchange Reserves covers what rising or falling balances on exchanges actually signal.
The market around the chain
Some instruments live off-chain. Bitcoin Dominance measures bitcoin’s share of the whole market, a ratio that said plenty in October 2026 when it pushed toward 60 percent while the rest of the market sold off harder. Bitcoin ETF Flows explains the daily creations and redemptions that became a structural force after 2024, and where to track them. Hash Rate covers the security budget, an instrument that kept making highs even in drawdowns, crossing the zetahash mark in 2026. Bitcoin Correlation tests the “digital gold” and “risk asset” stories against the actual numbers.
The rule this section runs on
Every figure carries a date, every table names its source, and no metric is sold as a crystal ball. On-chain data describes positioning; it does not predict outcomes, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. The newsletter applies these instruments to each week’s tape, twice a week; the standing explanations live here and get updated when the data moves. For the practical side, custody and transacting, see Using Bitcoin.