Bitcoin is one of the first things that comes to our mind when we think of cryptocurrencies. And why not? Bitcoin is the oldest cryptocurrency known to us. It is also the most revolutionary one.
We saw bitcoin when it was worth less than $1,00, and we also witnessed the time when the price of 1 bitcoin was nearly $20,000. So, what changed for bitcoin and how this dramatic shift in prices took place. To find out, let’s do a brief analysis of the Bitcoin price between 2017 and 2019.
Bitcoin Before 2017
Before 2017, bitcoin was known only to a handful of investors who were actually trading cryptocurrencies at the time. The lowest recorded price of bitcoin (according to coinmarketcap) was $68 in July 2013. Being a highly volatile cryptocurrency, Bitcoin often changed in value, however, the price never exceeded $1,000 (except for once in December 2013), not until the beginning of 2017.
Bitcoin Price Graph Before 2017
Bitcoin In 2017
The actual evolution of bitcoin happened in 2017. This was the year when everyone started recognizing bitcoin as a cryptocurrency with strong potential.
On Jan 2, 2017, the price of bitcoin was $1,027.69, which was nothing extraordinary given the increasing popularity of cryptocurrencies. But after that, the coin price continued to increase and did not stop until it reached an all-time high of $19,657.30 on December 17, 2017.
Bitcoin Price Graph During 2017
Between January 2017 and December 2017, Bitcoin grew nearly 18 times in value and ended up making a number of people very rich. The market cap of BTC also increased from nearly $18 billion to over $329 billion during this period.
2017 was the year when cryptocurrencies effectively surpassed all the previous predictions about the prices, because, to be honest, no one had imagined, let alone predicted, this kind of evolution.
The unprecedented growth of Bitcoin during 2017 also had a visible impact on many other cryptocurrencies, including altcoins. While some coins grew along with bitcoin, many others dropped in price. For instance, the price of ETH (the second most popular cryptocurrency) increased from $10 in January 2017 to over $800 in December 2017. Notably, the growth in ETH price was nearly 80 times or 8000%, which was even higher than the bitcoin price growth.
ETH Price Graph During 2017
One of the biggest impacts of the 2017 Bitcoin growth was that many people, especially in the finance sector, started showing interest in cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin In 2018 And 2019
The growth in the bitcoin price continued until December 2017, after which the coin price dropped significantly. The BTC price in as recorded in December 2018 was 4,072.85. That is a nearly 70% drop from its January 2018 price of $16,211.
The similar trends were reported by other altcoins, including ETH which also dropped in price.
During 2018 and beyond, the price of bitcoin remained in the tune of $3k to $4k, that is until May 2019 when the price started rising again. The bitcoin price reached a year-high of $12,572 on July 10, 2019.
However, an unexpected event that occurred in 2019 is that the price of ETH and other old coins did not rise with the increase in BTC price. At the same time, new altcoins with real value and concept started rising in both popularity and value. For example, the value of the Titan coin (TTN) increased during this BTC price hike.
To sum up, Bitcoin may have fared well in the past years, but it too volatile and unpredictable. It is, therefore, time that we as investors start looking for alternate coins which are more reliable and real in value. The future will be of cryptocurrencies which have the potential to present real-world use cases and be actually useful for the people.