A lot of people are about to be caught completely offside. It is increasingly likely that the ISM Manufacturing Index continues higher next month and pushes above 55+, signaling a clear transition from contraction into economic expansion.
That alone already puts the current bearish consensus on shaky ground but the real story sits beneath the surface.
When you overlay Materials Select Sector (MSS), U.S. Railroads, Bitcoin, and ISM/PMI, a striking relationship appears. Historically, Bitcoin tracks these cyclical, economy-sensitive assets remarkably well. Similar highs, similar mid-cycle pullbacks, similar lows.
In previous cycles, all major upside moves across these charts occurred during periods of ISM expansion.
That’s what makes the current setup so unusual.
As ISM breaks back into expansion, Materials and Railroads are aggressively breaking out to new highs after years of consolidation, clearly explaining why ISM surged this month the real economy is accelerating. Yet Bitcoin is falling.
This divergence matters. It tells us two critical things.
First, economic expansion is the dominant force. When growth expands, capital expands. Liquidity expands. Risk assets expand. Everything eventually follows that tide.
Second, Bitcoin’s recent underperformance is not macro-driven. The only reasonable explanation is a combination of internal market dynamics: four-year-cycle reflexivity, long-term holders distributing, ETF-era distortions, and forced liquidations amplifying downside pressure.
In simple terms, Bitcoin is not weak because the economy is weak. It is weak despite the economy strengthening.
That makes Bitcoin historically oversold not just against itself, but against virtually every other major asset class. Its relative underperformance is the most extreme it has ever been, driven by temporary overhangs that cannot persist in a rising macro environment.
This is also why NIKKEI and IWM are already in price discovery. Expansion has returned. After years of contraction, the tide is rising again and rising tides carry ships.
Bitcoin already did something unprecedented this cycle: it made new all-time highs during economic contraction.
In my view, that was driven by ETFs and institutional adoption. Ironically, that same adoption has distorted expectations, breaking the clean four-year-cycle narrative and setting the perfect trap.
The playbook is obvious. Shake the market violently. Convince participants that 2026 will be a prolonged bear market. Let fear peak while macro conditions quietly improve. Then force Bitcoin to play catch-up once positioning is exhausted.
And when Bitcoin finally rejoins this expansion phase, it won’t do so gently. The catch-up won’t be gradual.
It will be violent.
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