The first chart is in an arithmetic scale in which a one dollar move from 700 to 701 is the same vertical distance as from 17,000 to 17,001. That creates an impression that Bitcoin is off-the-rails.

Silver, You got to know how! Silver in US Dollar, monthly chart as of January 7th, 2011 Another aspect little known is the principle on how to use arithmetic versus logarithmic charts.

The same trendline support is seen around $5,700 on a linear (arithmetic chart below). However, linear charts tend to be a bit distorted with fast-moving assets like bitcoin.

The historical log chart of Bitcoin. Source: Raoul Pal As such, on high time frame charts, like the weekly and the monthly chart, BTC always closed below $11,000, except for 2020.

The data look very different when plotted on what is called a logarithmic scale. In a typical graph, values on the (vertical) y-axis are plotted linearly: 1, 2, 3, and so on, or 10, 20, 30, or the ...