Bitcoin starts 2020 above $7,000, promptly drops 4 percent

2020 has barely begun and already bitcoin—the world’s leading cryptocurrency by market cap—is off to a rocky start. The cryptocurrency kicked off the new year trading solidly above $7,000 but has now fallen by roughly 4 percent during today’s early morning hours.

Bitcoin is currently trading for just over $6,900 per coin.

Bitcoin managed to gain some momentum during the latter half of December. The cryptocurrency jumped past the $7,000 per coin mark on December 19, following a nasty fall to about $6,600 the previous day.

The $7,000 per coin resistance held, and the price of Bitcoin even spiked to around $7,500 just two days before Christmas—a price that the crypto hadn’t seen since December 7. Yesterday, on New Year’s Day, Bitcoin was trading for just shy of $7,300 per coin.

But despite today’s relatively minor setback, bitcoin investors still have a lot to be happy about. Cryptocurrencies took the top spot on the list of the world’s most valuable investments of the past decade, with bitcoin itself having shot up more than 62,000 percent since 2010.

And while the world’s top crypto isn’t anywhere close to its all-time 2017 high of almost $20,000 per coin, Bitcoin has managed to reward loyal hodlers with gains of nearly 100 percent since the start of 2019.