Despite an 85% increase: Why 2019 was the worst “positive year” for Bitcoin

2019 was really only positive for a handful of digital assets – including Bitcoin, of course. Although BTC ended up reaching 85%, it was the worst positive year since records started. This could be a sign that things are now slowing down.

Bitcoin performs below average in 2019

It may sound strange: an asset that creates 85% in one year is below average. But that’s exactly what happened to Bitcoin in 2019.

In early January 2019, BTC was trading near its market low at around $ 3,750. It held just over $ 7,000 at year-end, an increase of approximately 85%. As impressive as it sounds, it was the worst positive year in Bitcoin’s history.

Crypto-analyst “Rptr45” has tabulated the historical prices of BTC and found that the performance of 2019 was only slightly worse than that of 2015.

“$ BTC ended the year at + 85.4%, which is actually the ‘worst’ positive year in history (slightly on the line with the + 88.1% of 2015).”

0/ $BTC finished the year +85.4% which is actually the “worst” positive year on record (slightly edging out 2015’s +88.1%). Gains were entirely driven in the Feb-June time period with 2H19 decidedly negative (-33.3%) with 5 of 6 months closing in the red. pic.twitter.com/I0MtXsG4sd

— Rptr45 (@Rptr45) January 2, 2020

The best year so far was 2013 – with a monumental plus of 3,448%, followed by 2011 and 2017 with four-digit increases.

The worst years with losses were 2014 and 2018, during the heavy bear market. 2019 is the third worst year in the short life cycle of bitcoins.

The survey also takes a look at the total and daily transaction volume. This shows that 2019 fell below the levels of 2017 ($ 768 billion) and 2018 ($ 2.1 billion).

Inflation for the last year shows that $ 5.02 billion of BTC block rewards removed were compared with $ 5.25 billion in 2018 and 2.8 billion $ in 2017. In this and the the May halving next year there should be some relief.

The correlation between Bitcoin price and the number of transactions continued to decrease in 2019. However, the theoretical cost base versus price was generally graphically upward for the year, which the analyst says is typically a good sign of support and subsequent price hikes.

January is always painful

A look at the January performance does not paint a pretty picture – not in the past five years.

“January was the worst month for $ BTC in the past 5 years, with an average performance of -14.8%. This included a movement of -11.2% in January 2016 – six months before the last halving. “

The analyst adds that 2015 and 2019 were years of gains before the last cut in half, but there may not be a new high in 2020 as that will happen more likely in 2021. At least this has always been the case so far. 

However, not every analyst agrees because the forecasts for this year are huge.

Bitcoin rides its digital roller coaster, but long-term gains seem practically guaranteed – unless someone turns off the internet!