How Has Bitcoin Performed During the Covid-19 Pandemic?

In the past three months, global markets have digested amazing things, chief among them the impact of COVID-19.

Since the onset of COVID-19, the price of Bitcoin has been on a ride. The following is a look at the performance of the cryptocurrency’s price from January 1, 2020 through May 29, 2020.

The price of Bitcoin started the year at $7,385. As of writing, the price has risen to $9,198, an increase of 25%. This 25% return beats most any equity market or other asset class.

The rise has, of course, not been smooth. The price of Bitcoin during 2020 peaked at $10,369 on February 16th. Directly following that peak was a period of weak performance. Bitcoin’s price dropped to a low of $4,830 by March 14th.

As astonishing as the drop in the price was, the rise might be considered just as amazing. After bottoming in the middle of March, Bitcoin’s price went on a healthy rise, making its way to $9,198, or an increase of over 90% over just 2 ½ months.

The question here is: How is the ups and downs of 2020 for the price of Bitcoin connected with news about COVID019? That look follows.

COVID-19 News and Bitcoin’s Price

The following plots the change in the number of deaths due to COVID-19 with the price of Bitcoin. The left axis and orange bars is the number of deaths from COVID-19 since the start of the year. The right axis and blue line is the price of Bitcoin over the course of the year.

Clearly, the rising concern about COVID-19 led to a drop in the price of Bitcoin. Interesting, although not surprising given that financial markets often move before the actual indicators do, Bitcoin’s price started to rebound before the number of deaths due to COVID-19 peaked.

Since the peak in the number of COVID-19 deaths, Bitcoin’s price has performed quite well, suggesting that Bitcoin’s price may be in for another surge should the number of deaths from COVID-19 continue to go down.

Summing Up

Overall, Bitcoin’s price has moved clearly in a different direction with the change in the number of COVID-19 deaths. Presuming the number of deaths associated with COVID-19 because to taper off, one might expect – just from the Bitcoin’s price connection with deaths – that the price of Bitcoin could rise more this year given the increasing demand for the cryptocurrency’s transaction and investment value.