Bitcoin recorded its best January in 10 years with a monthly increase of 39.6%

Despite the very bearish 2022 and negative predictions for the new year, bitcoin proved all its critics wrong in January, increasing its USD value by almost 40%.

This made this asset’s best performing January since 2013.

10 years later – massive gains

2022 turned out to be one of the worst years for bitcoin in terms of price action as the entire industry deteriorated amid massive collapses. It all started with the Terra ecosystem implosion in the middle of the year, followed by a series of bankruptcy filings by companies with exposure to LUNA and UST.

The sector finally started to recover at the end of the year when FTX went down in even more spectacular fashion. As one of the giants in the field until November, the contagion spread wildly, and the ripple effects were felt almost everywhere.

Focusing back on bitcoin, it fell below $16,000 for the first time in about two years. Just for reference, it was trading over $46,000 on January 1, 2022. As such, it ended last year with a 65% drop, although it was up about a grand at the end of it.

The first week of the new year was somewhat similar, with BTC stagnating below $17,000. However, the asset finally broke above the coveted line on January 9 and has never looked back since. On the contrary, it rose by double digits and charted a 5-month high of $24,000 over the past weekend. Despite losing some value over the next two days, bitcoin still managed to end the month at around $23,000 – a 39.66% increase, according to CoinGlass.

This made it the best January since 2013, when it soared 44%. Overall, this past January was the best month for BTC since October 2021 (39.93%).

How about February?

With February already here, it will be interesting to see what history tells us about BTC’s performance that month. As the image above shows, it has been very positive for the cryptocurrency since CoinGlass keeps records (2013).

In fact, February 10 years ago was the best, with a staggering 61.77% price increase, followed by 2021 (36.78%). Only in 2014 (-31.03%) and 2020 (-8.6%) did bitcoin end the month at a lower price appreciation than it entered it.

Predictions for this year vary widely, with many BTC supporters envisioning massive price gains and detractors envisioning another bearish year.