Key Takeaways
- Cryptoquant’s Bull Score jumped from 30 to 80 in one week, its highest since October 2025.
- Bitcoin rallied more than 24% from below $64,000 to briefly top $80,000 this week.
- Cryptoquant says a weekly close above $83,000 is needed to confirm a new bull market.
The Fastest Bull Score Flip in a Year
Cryptoquant’s Bull Score, an index the analytics firm uses to gauge whether bitcoin is shifting into a new phase, surged from 30 to 80 over the past week, its highest reading since October 2025 and, by the firm’s own account, the fastest shift in market conditions since the start of this year.
The move came as bitcoin climbed by nearly 25% over the past ten odd days, briefly clearing $81,000 before settling back near $79,000. Eight of the index’s ten underlying indicators, which blend measures of market demand, investor profitability, network activity and liquidity, now flash bullish.
Moreover, for the first time since early October 2025, spot and futures demand for bitcoin are rising together, a combination Cryptoquant treats as a stronger signal than either demand source moving alone.
U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs backed that up on the ground as the funds pulled in roughly $1.9 billion in net inflows during the week ending August 21, their strongest intake since October 2025, extending an inflow streak that Bitcoin.com News has tracked minutely.
$83,000 Is the Real Test
Cryptoquant is drawing a hard line before calling this a confirmed bull market. Its researchers want to see a weekly close above $83,000, which is roughly where bitcoin’s 365-day moving average currently sits.
The firm treats that average as its long-term dividing line between improving and weakening conditions, and until price closes a full week above it, Cryptoquant is characterizing the current move as only the “initial phase” of a potential new cycle rather than confirmation of one.
The swing is a sharp reversal from earlier this year, when Cryptoquant’s Bull Score fell as low as 20 out of 100 amid deep market stress, a level the firm associated with fading demand and weakening support. It’s also a different signal from the firm’s separate Bull-Bear Cycle Indicator, which turned green for the first time since March 2023 back in May, showing just how many overlapping onchain gauges Cryptoquant now runs to triangulate where bitcoin sits in its cycle.
