Bitcoin posts fourth straight month of gains for first time since 2021
Bitcoin saw its fourth consecutive monthly increase in April. Photo illustration of Fortune
Bitcoin’s fourth straight month of gains has some thinking that an extended bull run for the cryptocurrency could be coming soon.
The most popular cryptocurrency has ended every month since January higher than where it started, the longest stretch of positive monthly gains since 2021, according to Bloomberg. Bitcoin closed April at around $29,200 after starting the month near $28,400, according to CoinMarketCap.
The cryptocurrency pulled back from Sunday’s close on Monday, falling about 5% in the past 24 hours to $28,300, according to CoinMarketCap. The second most popular cryptocurrency, Ether, also fell 5% to around $1,800.
A four-month run of gains has previously been followed by an average increase of 260%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Such a jump would push Bitcoin past $100,000, compared to its all-time high of over $65,000 in November 2021.
The cryptocurrency had a rough 2022, falling to a low of around $15,700 in November amid the crypto bear market that plagued digital assets across the board. Since then, Bitcoin has risen steadily, although it has stalled for several weeks between $27,000 and $30,000.
Some have pointed to Bitcoin’s “halving,” which will halve the reward for mining a new block on the blockchain, as a sign that Bitcoin’s price will skyrocket next year, although this is not guaranteed.
Recently, the cryptocurrency has also received a boost from Ordinals, which are NFTs but on the Bitcoin blockchain. In Ethereum NFTs, the media associated with the NFTs are usually not stored on the blockchain itself, while Ordinals allow images, audio, and other media to be “written” onto a satoshi, the smallest possible unit on the Bitcoin blockchain. The Bitcoin community has seized on Ordinals as an opportunity to expand the blockchain beyond purely economic use.
On Sunday, the blockchain experienced the highest number of transactions in its history, due in part to Ordinals, BlockWorks reported. The blockchain reported more than 568,000 transactions on Sunday, according to BitInfoCharts, with about 300,000 of those related to Ordinals, according to a Dune dashboard cited by BlockWorks.
Still, Bitcoin faces challenges on its journey to match the 2021 high. On Monday, markets wobbled after regulators seized beleaguered First Republic Bank, which was then sold to JPMorgan Chase.
The Fed is expected to raise interest rates this week in a bid to fight inflation, despite warnings of an impending recession and GDP growth coming in lower than expected for the first quarter.
