Although the Bitcoin (BTC) price has not risen to new heights for more than half a year, the coin is worth much more today than it was a year ago.
From October last year to March of this year, Bitcoin has seen an impressive rally, to the point where almost no other asset class can match Bitcoin’s price performance.
Few Assets Beat Bitcoin
US asset manager VanEck looked back on Bitcoin’s great year so far in a report last Thursday. The Bitcoin price has risen by no less than 124% in exactly one year from September 16, 2023, leaving almost every major asset class behind. And that while Bitcoin has not risen to new heights for more than half a year.
Even within the crypto market, most coins have underperformed Bitcoin, with Bitcoin dominance increasing by a whopping 15% to 56% in a year.
“There is clearly much more interest in Bitcoin and digital assets now than there was a year ago,” conclude the analysts at VanEck. Bitcoin trading volume has increased by 173% in a year.
The analysts also conclude that Bitcoin’s adoption as an investment vehicle is being driven differently now than it was a year ago. In 2023, Bitcoin has enjoyed interest primarily through encoding, which VanEck describes as a “viral innovation” that allows users to store media files directly on the blockchain.
Today, value is driven more by its use as a means of storing and transferring value, it is written.
Bitcoin miners were the biggest losers last year. According to VanEck, the network security community had a “dramatic” year, which logically was caused by the Bitcoin halving. In April of this year, the rewards for miners were halved, literally reducing miners’ revenue by 50%.
‘Catch-up rally’ for BTC
The analysts also write in the report that they still believe that the Bitcoin halving will lead to a new bull market this time around, just like in previous cycles. According to them, the price of Bitcoin is lagging behind previous cycles due to “a combination of election fear and specific sales by parties that are unlikely to repeat this”. With the latter, they are referring to, among other things, the large BTC sales by the German government, the US government and the bankrupt Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox.
They expect a “catch-up rally” to take place for BTC, in which the price will benefit from the reduced supply of new Bitcoins, as it has in the past.
Source: https://newsbit.nl/vaneck-bitcoin-heeft-afgelopen-jaar-bijna-iedere-activaklasse-verslagen/
