#SolvProtocolMegadrop Bitcoin was the best investment of 2024, but not without its usual volatility.
Bitcoin was far and away the best performing asset class in 2024 as new ETFs ushered in more widespread adoption and hopes for deregulation under a new presidential administration lifted digital assets to record levels.
But owning cryptocurrency also came with its usual unpredictability and dizzying swings, as this month’s trading clearly illustrates.
has more than doubled in price since starting the year in the $40,000 range, with it last trading near $95,500. Ether
has scored a nearly 50% year-to-date gain, and last traded at around the $3,400 level.
Bitcoin and ether since the start of 2024
The most prosperous stretch of the year occured in the weeks following the U.S. presidential election. By mid-December, the cryptocurrency had rocketed above $108,000 for the first time, fueled by optimism that President-elect Donald Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris would open the door for greater regulatory clarity and send new money rushing into the sector.
Since then, however, prices have eased. Bitcoin is negative for the month, hurt by the expectation that the Federal Reserve’s rate cuts will roll out at a slower-than-anticpated pace. The market has also faced a stretch of apparent profit-taking and choppiness into the end of the year.
The year began with a strong boost of confidence from the introduction in January of new ETFs that hold the cryptocurrency. The funds, which are pitched by asset managers as an simpler way for investors to access bitcoin, have pulled in tens of billions of dollars of cash this year. The iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) now has more than $50 billion in assets.
Ether ETFs joined the excitement in July. The demand for those funds has not been as strong as for their bitcoin counterparts, but the category has still attracted more than $2 billion in net inflows in less than six months, according to FactSet.