Bitcoin’s Best and Worst Months
Bitcoin’s 10 best and 10 worst calendar months out of 144 from October 2014 to September 2026, ranked by the percentage change from one month-end close to the next.
Data as of · month-end daily closes in USD (UTC) from Yahoo Finance · cross-checked against Blockchain.com
| List | Rank | Month | Change | Previous month-end close | Month-end close | Blockchain.com change | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best | 1 | May 2017 | ▲ +69.63% | $1,348 | $2,286 | ▲ +69.6% | 2017 |
| Best | 2 | August 2017 | ▲ +63.58% | $2,875 | $4,703 | ▲ +65.3% | 2017 |
| Best | 3 | May 2019 | ▲ +60.25% | $5,351 | $8,575 | ▲ +62.3% | 2019 |
| Best | 4 | November 2017 | ▲ +58.21% | $6,468 | $10,234 | ▲ +55.7% | 2017 |
| Best | 5 | October 2017 | ▲ +49.09% | $4,339 | $6,468 | ▲ +47.4% | 2017 |
| Best | 6 | December 2020 | ▲ +47.77% | $19,626 | $29,002 | ▲ +47.0% | 2020 |
| Best | 7 | February 2024 | ▲ +43.72% | $42,583 | $61,198 | ▲ +43.7% | 2024 |
| Best | 8 | November 2020 | ▲ +42.41% | $13,781 | $19,626 | ▲ +42.7% | 2020 |
| Best | 9 | October 2021 | ▲ +40.03% | $43,791 | $61,319 | ▲ +40.3% | 2021 |
| Best | 10 | January 2023 | ▲ +39.84% | $16,547 | $23,139 | ▲ +40.0% | 2023 |
| Worst | 1 | June 2022 | ▼ −37.77% | $31,792 | $19,785 | ▼ −37.5% | 2022 |
| Worst | 2 | November 2018 | ▼ −36.41% | $6,318 | $4,017 | ▼ −36.7% | 2018 |
| Worst | 3 | May 2021 | ▼ −35.35% | $57,750 | $37,333 | ▼ −35.4% | 2021 |
| Worst | 4 | March 2018 | ▼ −32.93% | $10,398 | $6,974 | ▼ −32.9% | 2018 |
| Worst | 5 | January 2015 | ▼ −32.08% | $320.19 | $217.46 | ▼ −31.7% | 2015 |
| Worst | 6 | January 2018 | ▼ −27.80% | $14,156 | $10,221 | ▼ −26.0% | 2018 |
| Worst | 7 | March 2020 | ▼ −25.13% | $8,600 | $6,439 | ▼ −24.7% | 2020 |
| Worst | 8 | June 2026 | ▼ −20.41% | $73,580 | $58,559 | ▼ −20.4% | 2026 |
| Worst | 9 | August 2015 | ▼ −19.18% | $284.65 | $230.06 | ▼ −19.0% | 2015 |
| Worst | 10 | May 2018 | ▼ −18.90% | $9,241 | $7,494 | ▼ −18.9% | 2018 |
Change = the last daily close of the month ÷ the last daily close of the previous month, minus 1, using Yahoo Finance’s UTC closes. The last column repeats the calculation on Blockchain.com’s daily average price. Yahoo’s daily data starts in September 2014, so October 2014 is the first full month; October 2026 isn’t finished and isn’t included.
The top months
4 of the 10 best months
4 of the ten best months came in 2017: May, August, October and November, in the run-up to that December’s peak.1 See stretches without a new all-time high for how long the next record took.
June 2022
▼ −37.8%The worst month: bitcoin fell 37.8% in June 2022, from $31,792 to $19,785. It included the 16.0% one-day fall of June 13, 2022, one of the biggest on record (see bitcoin’s biggest one-day drops).1
4 of the 10 worst months
4 of the ten worst months came in 2018 — January, March, May and November — as bitcoin fell from its December 2017 peak.1
June 2026
▼ −20.4%The only month from 2025 or 2026 in either list is June 2026, when bitcoin fell 20.4% to $58,559.1
Calendar months on average
Averaged over the 12 years, October has the highest average return, +16.6%, and closed higher in 9 of 12 years; January has the lowest, -1.2%, with 6 rises in 12. These are averages of past months only and say nothing about future ones.1
Sources
- Yahoo Finance, Bitcoin USD (BTC-USD) daily history, last daily close (UTC) of each month, October 2014 to September 2026, retrieved 2026-10-12.
- Blockchain.com, Market Price (USD), daily average USD price across major exchanges, via the charts API, retrieved 2026-10-12 (cross-check).
For information only. Not financial advice. See the terms of use.