Bull Run Checklist: 20 Things to Do Before the Next Rally

The best time to prepare for a crypto bull run is before it starts: secure your accounts, decide how much you will invest, write down when you will take profits, organize your tax records and learn the scams that spread when prices rise. This checklist turns that into 20 concrete steps you can complete in a few calm weekends.

Nobody can say when the next rally will come — 2026, 2027 or later — or whether it will be as large as past ones. That is exactly why preparation beats prediction. Past bull markets rewarded people who had a plan and punished those who improvised. Each item below is useful whatever the market does.

Why Preparation Matters More Than Timing

Looking at past cycles up to mid-2025, the 2017 and 2021 rallies both ended in bear markets that erased most of the gains for people who never sold. Many also lost money in ways unrelated to price: hacked accounts, phishing, collapsed platforms such as FTX in 2022, and leveraged positions wiped out in a single day.

Those losses had little to do with predicting the market and a lot to do with preparation. A checklist works because it moves decisions to a calm moment, when you can think clearly about risk instead of reacting to a chart that is moving fast.

Security (Items 1–5)

Security failures in a bull market are expensive because balances are larger and attackers more active.

1. 1Turn on app-based two-factor authentication for every exchange and email account, not SMS. Our guide to securing your exchange account walks through it.
2. 2Use a unique, strong password for each crypto account, stored in a password manager.
3. 3Move long-term holdings into self-custody if you are comfortable doing so, and keep only trading funds on exchanges.
4. 4Back up your seed phrase offline and test that you can recover the wallet. See how to back up a seed phrase the right way.
5. 5Review and revoke old token approvals in your wallets, since forgotten permissions are a common way funds are drained.

Sizing and Strategy (Items 6–10)

1. 1Decide your maximum crypto allocation as a percentage of your savings, and write it down.
2. 2Keep an emergency fund outside crypto, so you are never forced to sell in a crash.
3. 3Choose your approach: a lump sum, dollar-cost averaging or a mix. Regular, fixed purchases reduce the pressure of timing.
4. 4Set a rule against leverage, or a strict cap if you use it at all. Past bull markets included sudden 20–30% drops that liquidated leveraged traders.
5. 5Limit speculative bets such as new tokens and memecoins to a small, defined slice of your portfolio.

Our guide to position sizing and risk management explains how to set these numbers.

Profit-Taking and Exit Plan (Items 11–14)

1. 1Write down profit-taking rules — for example, selling a set portion each time a holding doubles, or when your crypto allocation grows beyond your target.
2. 2Decide where profits go: stablecoins, a bank account or other investments. Know the withdrawal process in advance.
3. 3Pick a few warning signs that would make you reduce exposure, such as extreme greed readings or very high funding rates in futures markets.
4. 4Plan for regret. You will almost certainly not sell the exact top. Selling in stages means you are never all right or all wrong.

For a deeper framework, see how to take profits in a crypto bull run without regret. For a deeper look, see Crypto Exit Strategy for the Next Bull Run.

Records and Taxes (Items 15–17)

1. 1Export your transaction history from every exchange and wallet you have used, including old accounts.
2. 2Record your cost basis: what you paid, when and in which currency, including fees.
3. 3Learn the basic rules where you live. Selling, swapping one coin for another and spending crypto are taxable events in many countries. Rules differ and change, so check official sources or a qualified professional. Our guide to crypto taxes in a bull run covers what to keep.

Scam Defense and Monitoring (Items 18–20)

1. 1Learn the common bull-market scams: fake giveaways, phishing sites, fake airdrops, impersonated support and "guaranteed return" platforms. Bull run scams explains each.
2. 2Bookmark official sites and verify contract addresses before trading, rather than clicking links from social media, ads or messages.
3. 3Set price alerts and a watchlist so you don't need to check charts constantly. Price alerts let you react to levels you chose in advance rather than every swing.

The Checklist at a Glance

Common Mistakes This Checklist Prevents

• Buying late with money you need. Clear sizing and an emergency fund stop this.
• Holding through the whole round trip. Past cycles saw gains disappear in the following bear market; written exit rules help.
• Losing funds to phishing during the excitement. Bookmarks and verification habits reduce the risk.
• Scrambling for records at tax time. Exports made now avoid missing data from closed or failed platforms.

Bottom line

You cannot control when the next rally comes, but you can control how prepared you are. Work through these 20 items now — security, sizing, an exit plan, records and scam defense — and you will be in a better position whether 2026 and 2027 bring a bull market, a bear market or something in between.