Long-time participants note that volatility is expected — and is even part of the attraction to investors in the relatively embryonic asset class. Bitcoin burst onto the mainstream consciousness with a more-than 1,000% annual gain in 2017, only to post a 74% drop the following year in what became known as a crypto winter. Then after three consecutive annual increases, it tumbled 64% last year amid a series of industry scandals and bankruptcies.
Bitcoin’s surprising fast exit from its “crypto winter” has once again put the notoriously volatile digital currency atop the leader-board in the first quarter for being the best-performing asset class by a wide margin.
With a 72% gain, Bitcoin closed out its best quarter since the three months ended March 2021, when it surged some 103%, Bloomberg data show. That vastly outstripped the S&P 500’s 7% year-to-date advance, the Nasdaq 100’s 20.5% uptick and the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF’s 6.8% jump.
