Have you ever heard of the Benner Cycle? I recently came across this old but surprisingly effective theory and find it fascinating, especially for the crypto market. The thing is: A simple farmer named Samuel Benner identified a pattern in the 19th century that still works today.

Samuel Benner was not a traditional financial expert — he was a farmer and entrepreneur involved in pig breeding. But that’s what made him interesting. Benner experienced several financial crises, crop failures, and market panics firsthand. Instead of giving up, he began analyzing these cycles. He wanted to understand why certain patterns repeated. The result? In 1875, he published a book with his insights.

Samuel Benner’s model is actually quite simple. He identified three types of years:

First, there are the A-years — the panic years. Benner observed that economic crises occurred every 18 to 20 years. He named years like 1927, 1945, 1965, 1981, 1999, and 2019 as such panic phases. Interestingly, 2019 fits perfectly with the crypto crash we saw back then.

Then there are the B-years — the selling years. These are the peaks when everything shines and prices are at their highest. 1926, 1945, 1962, 1980, 2007 — according to Benner, these were the years to reduce positions. And 2026? That could be such a year, based on his cycle.

And finally, the C-years — the buying years. 1931, 1942, 1958, 1985, 2012 were times when prices were at rock bottom and one could accumulate with a cool head.

What excites me: Samuel Benner worked with commodities like corn and iron prices, but his concept also works for Bitcoin and Ethereum. The crypto market is emotional and volatile — exactly what Benner’s theory predicts. Boom and crash, euphoria and panic — we see this every few years.

For us as traders, this is valuable. If we understand Benner’s cycle, we roughly know when markets are oversold or overbought. Bitcoin also has its four-year halving cycle, which fits perfectly with Benner’s patterns. In the A-years, panic sell-offs can occur — that’s when you should buy. In the B-years, everything rises — that’s when it’s time to lock in profits.

The beauty of Samuel Benner’s approach is that it shows: markets are not completely chaotic. They follow patterns based on human behavior. Greed and fear drive the cycles, not randomness.

If you think long-term and trade cryptocurrencies, you should keep Benner’s cycle in mind. It’s not about perfect timing but understanding major trends and acting strategically. Accumulate during the cheap years, reduce during the expensive years — that’s the essence of the Benner Cycle. And yes, it still works.