Bitcoin MVRV Hits Levels That Led To Parabolic Bull Run In 2020

On-chain data shows the Bitcoin MVRV ratio is currently at the same high levels as those that led to the parabolic bull run back in 2020.

As pointed out by CryptoQuant founder and CEO Ki Young Ju in a post on X, the MVRV ratio has just hit a value of 2.5. The “Market Value to Realized Value (MVRV) ratio” is a popular on-chain indicator that keeps track of the ratio between the Bitcoin market cap and the realized cap.

The “realized cap” here refers to a capitalization model for BTC that assumes that the real value of any token in circulation is not its current spot price (as the market cap takes it to be), but rather the value at which the coin was last transferred on the network.

The previous transaction for any coin may be considered the last time it changed hands, which implies that the price at the time would be its current cost basis. As such, the realized cap adds up the cost basis of every token in circulation.

This means that the realized cap essentially keeps track of the total amount of capital that the investors have used to purchase their Bitcoin. Since the MVRV ratio compares the market cap (that is, the value the investors are holding right now) against this initial investment, its value can tell us about the amount of profit or loss the investors as a whole are currently carrying.

Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the Bitcoin MVRV ratio over the history of the cryptocurrency:

As is visible in the graph, the Bitcoin MVRV ratio has rapidly climbed up as the asset’s price has gone through its latest rally. In this surge, the metric has managed to exceed the 2.5 level.

When the ratio is greater than 1, it means that the market cap is higher than the realized cap right now, and thus, the overall market is holding its coins at some profit. A value of 2.5 implies the average wallet is currently carrying gains of 150%.

“In Nov 2020, MVRV was 2.5 at $18K, preceding the all-time high and parabolic bull run,” explains Ju. Back in that bull run, the peak of the first half of 2021 wasn’t hit until the MVRV ratio crossed the 3.7 mark, just like the two bull runs preceding it.

The top in November 2021, however, didn’t follow this pattern, as it formed close to the 3.0 level. It now remains to be seen which path Bitcoin would take in its current rally, if it is at all similar to either of these.

Following Bitcoin’s impressive 22% rally over the past week, the asset’s price is now trading around the $62,800 level, not very far from setting a new all-time high now.