Crypto markets, like most speculative asset markets, tend to move through recurring phases rather than a straight line up or down. Recognizing these phases doesn't predict the future, but it does help put day-to-day price action in context.
A bull market is characterized by sustained upward price momentum, rising trading volume, and broad optimism — new participants enter, media coverage increases, and previously ignored projects can see rapid gains.
A bear market follows, typically after a period of excess: prices decline over an extended period, trading volume and public interest fade, and many of the projects that gained the most during the bull phase lose the most in the bear phase.
Between the extremes, an accumulation phase often occurs after a bear market bottoms out — price action flattens, volatility drops, and longer-term participants tend to accumulate positions quietly before the next broader move.
A distribution phase can occur near the top of a bull market, where early holders gradually sell into continued buying demand from newer entrants, often before a broader reversal becomes obvious.
These phases are a useful mental framework, not a mechanical trading system — real markets are messy, and no cycle repeats exactly the same way twice.
