Bitcoin

Bitcoin is Still Best-Performing Asset YTD Despite Bearish Q3

Anatol Antonovici | Oct 08, 2019 | 10:30

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Summing up the returns as at the end of the third quarter, Bitcoin is the best-performing asset year-to-date despite the September crash.

Bitcoin is the Indisputable Winner

On January 1, the oldest cryptocurrency out there started at $3,746, according to Coinmarketcap data. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at around $8,204 as at 01:34 PM UTC. This suggests a 119% year-to-date gain, which makes BTC the best performing asset so far.

The chances are that the cryptocurrency will keep this label till the end of the year.

Bitcoin almost touched the $14,000 level at the end of June. However, the digital currency left the YTD peak to form a descending triangle that was finally broken below in September. In fact, last month Bitcoin had its worst four-weeks since November 2018 and one of its worst quarters ever in terms of percentage performance. Despite that, the king of crypto continues to dominate the space and show higher returns than traded companies, commodities, and other assets.

Interestingly, Bitcoin is still the first violin of the crypto space as the long-awaiting altcoin season hasn’t really started yet.

Major Assets Are Not Even Close

So how does BTC compare to other assets? Well, if you check gold, an asset that shares some similarities with Bitcoin in terms of scarcity and use, you’ll see that it displays a 16% YTD return. The commodity has benefited from the Sino-US trade conflict, Brexit uncertainty, and geopolitical tensions.

Elsewhere, Nickel is the best performer among commodities, gaining over 63% since January 1.

The S&P 500 index has increased by more than 20% since the start of the year. This is an excellent result for the US stock market index, which updated the record high several times but it’s still not enough to compete with Bitcoin. Here is how the cryptocurrency compares to S&P 500, NASDAQ, oil, and gold:

BTC’s performance and volatility level prove that it doesn’t correlate with traditional assets, which makes it a great diversification option.

While Bitcoin has shown the best results among major assets, there are some high-risk assets with better returns, such as lesser-known tokens or penny stocks.

Do you think Bitcoin will be the best performing asset in 2020 as well? Share your thoughts in the comments section!

Images via Shutterstock, BTC/USD chart by TradingView