Bitcoin Concluded January With a 17% Price Drop: The Third-Worst January in History

History shows that January tends to be a rather negative month for bitcoin in terms of price performance. The 2022 edition didn’t go well either, as it became the third-worst January in the past decade with a near 17% decline.

January 2022 Ended With Substantial Retracement

Ever since the middle of November, when the entire crypto landscape seemed highly bullish riding the waves of the first-ever Bitcoin futures ETF launching in the US, the market has been in a knockdown state.

BTC, for example, tapped an all-time high at the time of $69,000 after recovering from the mid-2021 slumps. Yet, as the hype around the SEC’s approval started to disperse, the asset began tanking.

Thus, it ended the year more than $20,000 lower than its peak a month and a half ago and couldn’t live up to all the bullish predictions from crypto insiders and outsiders that forecasted a $100,000 price tag.

January didn’t start well. Bitcoin dropped by a few thousand dollars and stood below $45,000 for a few weeks before it headed straight down in the middle of the month. It plummeted by more than $10,000 in less than a week and bottomed below $33,000, becoming the lowest price point since late July.

Although the asset recovered about $5,000 in the following week, it still ended January with a steep 16.68% decline, according to data from Coinglass. Only in January 2015 and 2018, the cryptocurrency had registered more substantial price losses, with 33.05% and 25.41%, respectively.

Bitcoin Price Performance by Month. Source: Coinglass

Will February Be Any Better?

As the graph above demonstrates, January is typically a bloody month for bitcoin, with a few exceptions. February, on the other hand, is significantly more positive, which got the community going.

And the start of the month is heading in that direction, as bitcoin tapped $39,000 for the first time in ten days. Although it was initially rejected violently, it went back on the offensive and currently sits around that level once again.

History shows that February 2013 was the most successful second month of the year for BTC as it skyrocketed by over 60%. Last year was also impressive, with BTC adding more than 35% during those 28 days.