January 2018 — December 2020: Bitcoin recovers and soars even higher
After the huge melt-up of 2017, Bitcoin spent most of 2018 in a downtrend, falling throughout the year, following a brief surge to start the year. By the end of the first quarter, Bitcoin was down nearly 50 percent from where it had started the year. It spent much of the year bouncing between $6,000 and $8,000 before closing 2018 at $3,709 — down 73 percent for the year.
The year 2019 kicked off with more of the same, as Bitcoin looked for direction. It tried to burst through $4,000 for the first few months, but finally hit it in April and then rose to $5,000. May came and Bitcoin reached $6,000, then $7,000, then $8,000 before settling back in early June. That month Bitcoin swiftly spiked to $13,000 before coming back.
By September, Bitcoin was back solidly under $10,000, and it continued to search for direction and fell until the end of the year, finishing out 2019 at just under $7,200.
But with the turn of the calendar to 2020, Bitcoin picked up, rising over the next six weeks to above $10,000. In the midst of the stock market downturns during the initial COVID-19 pandemic wave, Bitcoin wavered, falling to $8,000. Then during the drawdown, it plummeted on March 12, 2020 — from $7,935 to $4,826 in a single day, a decline of more than 39 percent!
By early April, it was back above $7,000, then $8,000 and finally began pushing $10,000 in May. After dawdling for a couple of months, it finally rose to more than $11,000 in July and $12,000 in August. It settled over the next few months, until October, when it pushed through $13,000 again and ultimately vaulted to nearly $20,000 in November 2020, as financial markets tore higher on liquidity from the Federal Reserve and the prospect of a COVID vaccine.
Bitcoin raced higher during December 2020 and closed out the year at $28,949.
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