Bitcoin currently appears on track to make it to January 2023, the best January since 2013. Around New Year’s, it cost around $16.5k. In less than four weeks, the price of the asset has already risen to $23,000. As a result, returns are close to 40% so far in January.
Bitcoin investors posted negative returns six times before in January, while posting double-digit positive gains the other four times. Only in 2013 was the number slightly higher, namely 44%.
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However, that has not been the case for Ethereum so far. The largest altcoin traded in the $1.1k-$1.2k range during the early days of January. At press time on Friday, it was seen hovering around $1.5k. As a result, its RoI for 2023 was 31%, while it posted gains in the 50%-80% category in January 2021 and 2018.
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Will Bitcoin, Ethereum Notice a Bullish Extension?
Going forward, however, the rate of Ethereum’s slope is expected to pick up. As the Shanghai upgrade is scheduled for the first quarter of 2023, the community is gradually becoming optimistic.
In addition, Ethereum recently stepped again in the deflationary zone earlier this week, thanks to rising NFT sales. Last year’s EIP-1559 upgrade introduced a base fee burning mechanism after every Ethereum transaction. It helped pave the way for Ethereum to become deflationary. So if the number of tokens burned continues to eclipse the number of tokens issued, the price would gradually rise due to a decrease in supply.
Read more: This is how NFT sales pushed Ethereum into the deflationary zone
From a technical perspective, Bitcoin also appears to be gearing up to extend its rally. As shown below, there is a golden cross on the daily chart, which is a positive sign.
A golden cross usually occurs when a short-term moving average overtakes a large long-term moving average. So if the 50 DMA [blue] ends past the 200 DMA [yellow]a new price uptrend phase can be expected.