In his August 5 “Macro Monday” livestream, crypto analyst Josh Olszewicz delivered a review of the market’s late-summer state, arguing that while Bitcoin’s price action has gone quiet, the broader cycle remains intact. “We’re in this pocket of seasonal weakness for August and September that we typically see most years,” he explained, pointing to seasonality charts showing that historically, Bitcoin underperforms in this time window. “It’s a high likelihood that August and September is a giant nothing burger,” he added.
From a technical standpoint, the analyst sees no reason to declare the top is in. “Technicals still look fine. Price still looks okay. We had a pullback. All that is fine,” he said, emphasizing that Bitcoin has not yet exhibited the typical parabolic advance associated with major tops. Nor have other macro or on-chain metrics shown signs of terminal overheating. “We don’t have other metrics screaming from the rooftop saying it’s time yet.”
A further reason for caution is the collapse in futures basis across major assets. “Premium is all the way down to under 7% on BTC. It’s under 8% on ETH. And I think SOL is a little more illiquid, but even SOL is way down—15% from 35%,” he noted. That contraction in futures premiums, typically a sign of speculative demand drying up, reflects a broader risk-off mood. “Not a lot of bullish sentiment, not a lot of craziness,” Olszewicz observed.
From a macroeconomic perspective, the picture is mixed. Inflation data from Trueflation remains low—currently at 1.65%—but Olszewicz warned that new post–August 1 tariffs may raise prices in the months ahead. “We are adding inflationary pressures with tariffs, no doubt about it,” he said, though the effect will take time to appear in the data. Meanwhile, core PCE is headed in the wrong direction, and the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow model is printing 2.1% growth for Q3—hardly recessionary, but not robust either.
Labor market data continues to cloud the outlook. “If we account for a non-collapsing labor force participation, we could be as high as 4.9% on the actual unemployment rate,” Olszewicz warned. “And we’re continuing to see a degradation in job availability for manufacturing,” particularly in “Heartland Rust Belt types of jobs.”
What changed the game, Olszewicz said, was not liquidity per se, but the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs. “That has really been, in my opinion, a big difference maker,” he explained. “We got ETF approvals here, ETF started trading here, and the rest is history as far as flows are concerned.”
In conclusion, Olszewicz emphasized that while the broader risk appetite has declined and price action remains dull, there is no evidence yet that the Bitcoin cycle has topped. “The cycle’s probably not over,” he said. “It’s just sleeping—and Q4 will ultimately determine whether it wakes up.”
At press time, BTC traded at $113,041.
