Bitcoin and Ethereum Start 2023 in the Green—But Only Slightly

Bitcoin has kicked off 2023 with modest gains—but has barely budged in the past week and is up over the past day by just 1%. 

According to CoinGecko, the biggest cryptocurrency by market cap is trading for around $16,729. That’s a tiny increase of 1% in 24 hours; over the past week, it’s down 0.7%. 

And this time last year, BTC was trading hands for $47,387—64% higher than it is now. It’s down even further—over 75%—from its all-time high of $69,044, set in November 2021. 

Ethereum is also up in the past 24 hours, per CoinGecko: the second-largest digital asset has climbed 1.9%, priced at around $1,219. But it is also flat over the past week and has had a terrible month; in November it plunged from highs of over $1,600 to under $1,100, while December saw it only briefly climb over $1,300 before dropping back.

ETH is also down 75% from its November 2021 all-time high of $4,878. 

Bitcoin ends 2022 in the red

Both cryptocurrencies have struggled as of late: BTC briefly reached over $18,000 in mid-December but since then has not managed to hit $17,000. And every one of the cryptocurrency’s quarterly candles was red in 2022—meaning that every four months, the asset was down: a truly bearish indicator for the asset and something it has never done before.

The cryptocurrency market largely followed the U.S. stock market in 2022. When the Federal Reserve raised interest rates to get inflation under control, investors generally sold U.S. equities, as well as Bitcoin and other digital assets. 

This is because they are “risk assets”—assets like tech stocks or Bitcoin are more volatile in price than less risky assets like U.S. treasuries or dollars.

And stocks had a terrible year in 2022. In fact, the S&P500 suffered its biggest pullback since 2008.

Cryptocurrencies also took a battering following the collapse of major blockchain project Terra in May, and later the bankruptcy of popular exchange FTX.