Bitcoin has enjoyed a positive momentum in the final months of 2023, provoking talks about the return of the bull market. Data analytics company Kaiko Research is amongst the latest entities to comment on the performance of the premier cryptocurrency this year.
The data provider recently published a report, positing that Bitcoin looks on course to finish the year as one of the best-performing assets in the financial markets.
How Is Bitcoin Faring Against Other Assets?
According to the report from Kaiko Research, Bitcoin is up by more than 160% in 2023, outperforming most traditional assets at the moment. This positive run comes despite the tight macroeconomic conditions and tough challenges in the crypto industry.
Kaiko noted that only a few companies are ahead of Bitcoin in terms of year-to-date (YTD). Notably, software company NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA) is one of the firms currently outpacing BTC’s performance, having soared by more than 228% in the year 2023, according to data provided by TradingView.
In the report, Kaiko divided BTC’s price action in 2023 into three stages, including the “early rally from cycle lows, the mid-year stall, and the end of the year rally.” Specifically, the data analytics company highlighted the “mid-year stall” period, calling it a “strange time.”
During this time, which spanned between March and October, Bitcoin almost consistently traded between $25,000 and $30,000. However, optimism about a spot BTC exchange-traded fund (ETF) skyrocketed after an erroneous publication stated that the BlackRock ETF had been approved.
Thanks to this incident, investors have seen Bitcoin jump from $28,000 to above $45,000 between October and December. Kaiko added:
So, despite a somewhat boring middle of the year, BTC has one of the best Sharpe Ratios of any major assets this year, second only to semiconductor giant Nvidia, whose stock more than doubled from January to May on AI excitement.
Risk-adjusted returns on various traditional assets and Bitcoin | Source: Kaiko
For context, the Sharpe ratio is one of the most popular techniques for measuring risk-adjusted relative returns. It essentially compares the return on an investment with its risk.
BTC Price Overview
As of this writing, the Bitcoin price stands at $43,864, reflecting a 0.5% price increase in the past 24 hours. The premier cryptocurrency is up by more than 4% in the last seven days, showing a good recovery from the previous week’s slump.
Meanwhile, BTC continues to dominate the crypto sector as the largest asset, with a market capitalization of over $858 billion.
BTC price continues to hover around $44,000 on the daily timeframe | Source: BTCUSDT chart on TradingView