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An astrologer who forecasted 3 big market moves for bitcoin shares her timing predictions for the next significant events — and explains how she trades crypto and forecasts based on lunar cycles

This is a photo of Maren Altman outside posing.Maren Altman

Summary List Placement

Crypto investors use technical analysis, on-chain data, and market-moving news to try and predict bitcoin's already volatile price action.

But one forecaster uses a much different approach. Maren Altman is an astrologer and social media influencer who sends out a crypto-charted newsletter and regularly posts about date predictions that could impact the sector. 

Altman, a New York University graduate who majored in philosophy, has amassed 1 million TikTok followers and 112,000 Twitter followers as people clamor to find out when the stars are aligned on their money. 

One tweet Altman posted on January 22 told followers to "take note" of bitcoin on May 16th and July 25th. The tweet pulled in skeptics, who wondered how she predicted that. 

Then on May 16, Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to a tweet that suggested the firm would sell its bitcoin holdings. The crypto tumbled from as high as $49,676 to as low as $44,494, or a 10.4% intraday drop. And on July 25, it rose 11% intraday from about $34,225 to $38,253. Musk had hinted in the previous week that Tesla would resume accepting bitcoin payments.

Altman noted that both dates had similar planetary alignments that correlated with bitcoin's genesis block, the first-ever bitcoin block to be mined. 

The time of birth or creation of something is key for astrologers, as it helps them map out planetary alignments. Each planet signifies something to them, for example, Jupiter means "winning," and Venus "love".

"So, with Venus and Jupiter being two planets that indicate the increase and the growth of something, I knew that those are going to be big days, especially because both were in a sign, the sign of Pisces, where they have dignity or are best suited," Altman said. 

Altman said she doesn't always get the interpretation right and initially thought May 16 would be a bullish day, but it turned out to be bearish. And 

Earlier in the year, she told her followers to watch for a price correction on Jan, 11, a day that bitcoin fell as much as 21% before recovering. 

Astrology in financial markets

Her unusual forecasting approach, while focused on crypto, is not entirely new in financial markets. The relationship between the stars and markets has been previously researched, including by a trio of University of Michigan economists who found that stock returns in 48 countries were lower on days around a full moon than around a new moon. Outside of academic circles, a group of Brooklyn-based developers in 2019 created an app that recommended stock picks based on users' astrological signs. It was later disclosed as a prank.

While traditional charting and technical analysis can provide signals of bitcoin's future price action, Altman's predictions have been enough to pull in millions of followers, including — as expected — some skeptics. Another TikTok crypto influencer asked his audience whether they thought she was just lucky. She has also faced plagiarism accusations tied to other astrology content creators on TikTok, specifically one who goes by the username AstroDim, Rolling Stone reported. The article added that she publicly and "vigorously" denied the accusations. 

Altman told Insider that mapping out bitcoin's chart is similar to doing it for human life: it's based on the position of planets at the given moment of something's start. For bitcoin, that's the genesis block, which was when the first-ever bitcoin block was mined. 

Though January 3, 2009, at 18:15:05 UTC, was the recorded time, Altman notes that we do not know the exact location of bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto when he mined it, which leaves out some specificity. 

As for how she uses cycles to make her own trades, Altman told Insider she adds the "moon phases" indicator on TradingView. The platform notes that "some investors and traders believe lunar cycles can impact markets because of their subtle gravitational impacts on Earth and market participants." 

"If you look at bitcoin's chart with the lunar cycle laid on top of it, which you can do in TradingView, it's an indicator of the moon cycles. Each new moon correlates with a local top and each full moon correlates with the local bottom."

She continued, "It's not a momentum indicator of when bull and bear will start it, but within a range, new moons are local tops and full moons are local bottoms. So my most profitable trades have been lunar cycle swing trades. I short the new moon, I long the full moon."

She notes that it's obviously not financial advice, and adds that individuals also have separate astrology charts that could impact their own outcomes. 

Altman's next forecasts

As for upcoming key dates for bitcoin, she singled out August 8, which will be a new moon or a local top. Therefore, she plans to hold her long position until the 7th and begin shorting on the 8th, when she believes there will be a correction. Another similar date she sees for a correction is September 1. 

"I do think the bull market has resumed. I do think we're on an uptrend. I don't want to scare anyone or be misspoken in a large correction, but obviously, there's ups and downs," Altman said. 

The third date that's on her radar is at the end of 2021, when she's concerned there might be a "harsh" correction. 

"December 28th, that is when Jupiter will, for the third and final time, hit the position that it did on May 16th and July 25th. Jupiter will return to that position and alongside other indicators, such as the Venus retrograde, it looks extremely problematic in my opinion."

Altman added that she will reevaluate this date closer to the end of the year, and said she'll likely move into stable coins around that period. 

As for an overall bitcoin price prediction, Altman moves away from astrology, saying that she doesn't claim to be good enough to know that yet but does have an idea of where it might land.

"I think anywhere from like $150,000 to $250,000 seems reasonable given the on-chain analysis and, like, the kinds of range that I've seen massive institutions claiming they're looking at," Altman said.  

As for the controversy generated by her skeptics, it doesn't shake her. 

"There's always like weird, mostly Twitter threads or trolls that try to make me out into this genius scammer or master. I'm like, there's no scam. Like it's literally just me trading magic, internet beans. I think people give me way too much credit."

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