After the bloodbath seen in 2022, most cryptocurrencies began to turn the corner at the start of the new year. The general increase in risk appetite has proven to be salubrious for the space.

Bitcoin Joins The Party: Bitcoin BTC/USD, the apex crypto, peaked at $68,789.63 on Nov. 10, 2021, and went downhill for most of 2022, when it lost about 64.27%. The plunge was far steeper than the broader equity market, but it was in line with high-profile tech stocks. The S&P 500 Index lost a more modest 19.44%. In comparison, mega-cap stocks such as Tesla and Meta ended 2022 with a loss of about 65%.

Last year’s plunge in Bitcoin’s price was largely driven by macroeconomics and geopolitics, as well as crypto-industry-specific risks. The fall was swift and hard. After starting 2022 at $46,311.75, it fell over the course of the first half of the year and bottomed at $17,708.62 on June 18. The apex crypto, which has a market capitalization of just under $400 billion currently, then consolidated below the $25,000 level.

The crypto retested the mid-June lows in early November and plummeted to a fresh bottom of $15,599.05 on Nov. 21, 2022. It was bouncing around this bottom until the first week of January 2023.

Since Jan. 8, Bitcoin has begun an uptrend, and it scaled above the $20,000 psychological resistance on Saturday, going past the barrier for the first time since Nov. 8, 2022. Intraday, it rose to a high of $21,075.14. 

Incidentally, the new year has brought new hopes to the…