The K-line mystery under Saturn retrograde: Why are crypto traders all into mysticism?

When Bitcoin’s price fluctuations are linked to celestial movements, a psychological game of uncertainty is playing out in the crypto world.

From Social Games to Trading Guides

A popular app exploded in December—called “Life K-Line.” Enter your birth chart to generate a fortune map, using red and green candles to depict the destiny trajectory from age 1 to 100. Within three days, API calls exceeded 300,000, and the initial post garnered over 3.3 million views.

More intriguingly, a token mimicking the same name appeared within 24 hours.

But this is more than just entertainment. It reflects a deeper social phenomenon: in a market without definitive answers, traders are building consensus through metaphysics.

Why Does Metaphysics Become a Psychological Anchor for Traders?

The crypto market is a hotbed of anxiety. 24/7 trading, no circuit breakers, sudden surges and crashes happen instantly. A single post from a big influencer can wipe out billions in market cap, and even well-established project founders can disappear overnight.

Economist Frank Knight distinguished two concepts: quantifiable “risk” and unquantifiable “uncertainty.” Humans are inherently afraid of the unknown. When risks cannot be quantified, people instinctively create false certainty to ease anxiety.

Metaphysics is the perfect vessel for this false certainty.

A crypto astrologer with 51,000 followers uses Bitcoin’s “birth chart” (created at the genesis block time, January 3, 2009) combined with planetary cycles to predict: Saturn signals a bear market, Jupiter indicates a bull market top. He claims to have successfully predicted the December 2017 bull market peak, the 2022 bear market, and the 2024 Bitcoin high.

This method of tying specific dates to celestial events provides confused traders with clear “waiting signals”—even if these signals come from space. “Mercury retrograde means no trading, full moon causes crashes, the chart shows Bitcoin will be bullish next year”—no complex technical analysis needed, just believe in destiny.

A 2006 study from the University of Michigan found that stock markets in 48 countries had 6.6% lower returns during full moons compared to new moons. It’s not that the moon truly influences the market, but collective superstition affects trader behavior. When enough people believe “full moon crashes,” they sell early, and the crash actually happens.

In a bear market, “fundamental analysis” and “value investing” become jokes; metaphysics seems more credible. Traders need metaphysics, not because it’s accurate, but because it offers an explanation—even if false—that’s easier to accept than uncertainty with no end in sight.

Why Does Metaphysics Always Seem Effective?

The enduring vitality of metaphysics stems from cognitive biases in the brain.

Confirmation bias is the core mechanism: those who believe “full moon crashes” remember all cases of crashes after full moons, ignoring days of gains or sideways movement. The “Life K-Line” shows that during this year’s bull market, small gains were attributed to “chart validation,” while crashes were explained as “short-term corrections that don’t affect the big trend.”

Social media amplifies this bias. Posts like “I went long ETH contracts based on Tarot readings, made 20% in three days” are widely shared, but those who lost money don’t post. As a result, the information flow is flooded with successful stories, while failures are filtered out.

Even more problematic is the ambiguity of metaphysics—it can never be falsified. Masters say not to trade during Mercury retrograde; if you lose money, it’s because you didn’t listen, and if you profit, it’s due to a special chart. Tarot cards show “significant volatility recently,” and both rises and falls are considered validation.

This characteristic of being unfalsifiable ensures metaphysics remains undefeated. Like certain taboo rules of some spiritual beads, the more vague the rules, the easier it is to assign various explanations.

Therefore, traders are not necessarily superstitious; their brains are simply using the most energy-efficient way to process information: remember what’s useful, ignore what’s not, and replace complex analysis with simple explanations. Metaphysics isn’t popular because it’s accurate, but because it always appears to be.

The True Value of Metaphysics: Social Bonds

The fundamental reason metaphysics has exploded in the crypto world is that it becomes an accessible social currency.

Discussing technical analysis can lead to disagreements, but with metaphysics, there’s no right or wrong—only resonance. “Is your life K-Line accurate?” is widely discussed, not because people believe it, but because it’s a topic anyone can participate in, without needing expertise.

When you say in a group, “Mercury retrograde today, I’m not opening positions,” no one questions “that’s unscientific.” Instead, someone replies, “Me too, let’s avoid this wave.” Essentially, it’s about confirming that each other’s anxiety is justified.

A Pew Research survey in 2025 shows that 28% of American adults consult astrology, Tarot, or fortune-telling at least once a year. Metaphysics is no longer fringe culture but a widespread psychological need. The crypto community simply turns this need from “private practice” into “public display.”

Conclusion: We Don’t Predict the Future

The popularity of “Life K-Line” reveals a truth every trader secretly knows but doesn’t admit: our sense of control over the market may be just as fragile as our control over fate.

Seeing your “Life K-Line” show a bear market this year, traders won’t really exit the market. But when losing money, they blame themselves less; when missing out, they comfort themselves more: “It’s not my fault; it’s the chart cycle.”

In a 24/7, year-round, highly uncertain market, what we truly want to predict isn’t the market trend itself, but a psychological support that keeps us at the table. Metaphysics offers not answers, but companionship.