Messari: 13 charts to review Bitcoin's 2020

Messari recently released a research report titled "Bitcoin 2020 Review: The Year the Institutions Arrived". Messari researcher Ryan Watkins shared the core content of the report in a Twitter thread. Golden Finance compiled it as follows:

We are excited to review BTC in 2020 with you

2020 is an unforgettable year. Well-known institutions entered the market this year, and BTC truly became a macroeconomic asset. The following are the highlights of BTC per month in 2020.

BTC is currently at an all-time high and has performed very well this year, but this does not mean that its price is stable.

As usual, BTC prices have experienced significant fluctuations in 2020.

January

On January 3, the United States assassinated Iranian Major General Suleiman.

Surprisingly, BTC price behaves like a safe haven asset despite rising war risk

This event provided the first glimpse into how BTC could be shaping up to be a legitimate macro asset.

February

The novel coronavirus has reached a tipping point for a market crash.

BTC’s correlation with the S&P 500 reached all-time highs in the following weeks.

This is when everyone realized that Bitcoin is not a recession hedge asset, but a hedge against inflation and loss of confidence in fiat currencies.

March

Financial markets plummeted.

The market experienced a serious liquidity crisis and BTC prices reached a new low.

On March 12, “BTC Black Thursday,” its price plummeted 50% to a low of less than $4,000.

BTC closed down 40% on the day.

Faced with a sharp sell-off, the cryptocurrency market saw a massive liquidation on derivatives exchanges.

Central banks around the world began to issue more money, governments launched powerful economic stimulus plans, and macro-financial markets became turbulent.

April

Central banks around the world began to issue more money on a large scale.

By the end of April, the four major central banks had issued more than $3.5 trillion worth of currency in seven weeks.

People are talking about unlimited QE, 0 interest rates, and modern monetary theory.

This hints at BTC’s potential to fight inflation.

May

Legendary macro investor Paul Tudor Jones revealed that Bitcoin accounts for a “low single-digit percentage” of assets under management at his Tudor BVI fund.

He said BTC is the best inflation hedge and reminds him of gold in 1976.

On May 11, the BTC halving took place, with the block reward dropping from 12.5 to 6.25 BTC.

Despite all the hype surrounding this halving, it happened smoothly.

This is also very surprising.

June

This has been the most lackluster month for BTC .

New changes have emerged in the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem, and the government has taken a series of macro-financial market measures. Despite this, the BTC trading price range has been between $9,000 and $10,000 within 60 days since the end of May.

This feels very strange.

July

The OCC authorizes national banks and federal savings associations to provide cryptocurrency custody services to customers.

This provides regulatory clarity for banks and paves the way for them to launch cryptocurrency products.

August

MicroStrategy (MSTR) announced the purchase of $250 million worth of BTC (a total of 21,454) as part of a new capital allocation policy to hedge against inflation.

Over the next few months, MSTR would go on to purchase 70,470 more bitcoins.

It currently holds over $1.7 billion worth of BTC.

September

The value of BTC tokens on Ethereum exceeds $1 billion (about 92,600, accounting for 0.5% of the total Bitcoin supply).

This growth was primarily driven by yield opportunities within the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem.

There are now nearly $3.5 billion in BTC tokens on Ethereum.

October

On the first day of this month, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a lawsuit against BitMEX.

The group was accused of operating an unregistered trading platform and violating CFTC regulations such as AML and KYC.

Surprisingly, BTC is still getting a lot of attention.

On October 8, Square announced that it had purchased $50 million worth of Bitcoin (4,709) as an asset reserve.

On October 21, PayPal launched a new service that allows its 325 million users to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies.

This is an interesting trend.

November

Bitcoin also received another major institutional endorsement, this time from renowned macroeconomic investor Stanley Druckenmiller, who said he owns Bitcoin.

A few weeks later, Citigroup released a report saying that Bitcoin could reach a market value of $318,000 by the end of 2021.

In late November, Bitcoin began to hit all-time highs as interest from institutional investors grew.

December

MassMutual becomes the first insurance company to purchase BTC.

Ruffer Investments, a UK-based investment management company, bought BTC.

Guggenheim CIO Scott Minerd said that based on the scarcity of the asset and its relative value to gold, the price of BTC could reach over $400,000.

On December 16, Bitcoin finally broke through its all-time high, breaking through the psychological barrier of $20,000.

Market recognition is the biggest sign of the arrival of a new era for BTC.

A day later, Coinbase announced its IPO, which was entirely expected.

In the years leading up to 2020, it was clear to many that fixed-supply Bitcoin could become valuable as a store of value digital asset, but it was unclear when that would become so.

With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic this year, the answer to this question has become increasingly clear.

In response to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world have printed money at an unprecedented rate, leading many to question the value of fiat currencies.

Investors are looking for inflation-resistant assets to hedge against potential fiat currency depreciation, which brings BTC into play more quickly.

Another benefit of Bitcoin is that it is an inflation hedge suitable for the digital age.

BTC plays an increasingly important role in the global monetary system, institutional rating infrastructure continues to improve, and regulatory clarity is further enhanced. It is certain that more institutions will hold BTC in 2021.

Hope you all enjoyed our 2020 BTC review.