Honestly, if you were looking at Bitcoin in early 2019, things felt pretty grim. We were coming off the "Crypto Winter" of 2018, a brutal year where the price had cratered from nearly $20,000 all the way down to the $3,000 range. Most people—at least those outside the hardcore "HODL" circles—thought the experiment was basically over.
But 2019 didn't play by those rules. It was a year of massive, weird, and often confusing contradictions.
While the mainstream media was busy writing Bitcoin's obituary for the hundredth time, the bitcoin price in 2019 was quietly preparing for one of its most interesting comeback stories. It wasn't a straight line to the moon, though. Not even close. It was a jagged, volatile mess that saw the asset outperform gold, oil, and the S&P 500 while simultaneously being shaken by massive Ponzi schemes and regulatory threats from the highest levels of government.
The Year of the Great "Disbelief" Rally
January 2019 started with Bitcoin sitting at a humble $3,827. It was quiet. Too quiet. For the first three months of the year, the price just sort of meandered. People were bored.
Then, April 2nd happened.
In a single hour, Bitcoin surged about 20%. No one really knew why at the time, though rumors of a massive algorithmic trade across multiple exchanges started flying. This broke the $5,000 barrier and shifted the sentiment from "depression" to "maybe we aren't dead yet." By May, we were looking at $8,000. By June? Bitcoin touched **$13,800**.
That is a 240% increase in six months.
Think about that for a second. If you’d bought in at the New Year, you’d more than tripled your money before the summer BBQ season even started. But the narrative behind this pump was complicated. You had two massive, conflicting forces at play: Facebook and a multi-billion dollar scam called PlusToken.
Facebook’s Libra and the "Zuck Pump"
In June 2019, Facebook (now Meta) announced Libra. The idea was to create a global digital currency backed by a basket of real-world assets.
The market went nuts.
Investors figured that if Facebook was getting into crypto, it validated the whole space. It brought massive eyes to the bitcoin price in 2019. Ironically, the more regulators attacked Facebook’s Libra for being a threat to financial stability, the more people realized that Bitcoin—which has no CEO to subpoena and no headquarters to shut down—was the "real" version of what Facebook was trying to build.
But then the hammer dropped.
Congress hauled Mark Zuckerberg in for questioning. Trump tweeted that he was "not a fan of Bitcoin." Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin held a literal press conference to talk about how Bitcoin was a national security risk.
The summer high didn't last. As the regulatory heat turned up, the price began to slide.
The PlusToken Shadow
You can't talk about the bitcoin price in 2019 without talking about PlusToken. It was one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history, originating mostly in China and South Korea. Scammers made off with roughly $2 to $3 billion worth of crypto.
Here’s the thing: those scammers had to cash out.
Every time Bitcoin tried to rally in the late summer and fall of 2019, these massive "sell walls" would appear. Analysts at firms like Chainalysis later pointed out that the consistent downward pressure through the end of the year was likely the result of the PlusToken thieves dumping thousands of BTC onto the market in small batches to avoid detection.
It was a tug-of-war. On one side, you had institutional optimism from things like Bakkt (a regulated futures exchange from the owners of the NYSE) and on the other, you had the largest sell-off in crypto history happening behind the scenes.
Why the $7,000 Finish Actually Mattered
By December 31, 2019, Bitcoin closed at roughly $7,200.
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If you just looked at the $13,800 peak in June, you’d think the year was a failure. You’d be wrong.
Bitcoin ended the year up about 94%. Compared to the S&P 500 (which had a great year at around 29%) or Gold (about 18%), Bitcoin was still the undisputed heavyweight champion of returns.
- January: $3,800 (The Bottom)
- June: $13,800 (The Peak)
- December: $7,200 (The Consolidation)
It was a "reset" year. It cleaned out the weak hands and set the stage for the halving that would come in 2020. More importantly, 2019 was the year Bitcoin stopped being a "magic internet money" toy and started being viewed as a legitimate macroeconomic hedge. Even China’s President Xi Jinping got in on the action in October, praising blockchain technology and sending the price up 40% in a single day—the "Xi Pump," as traders called it.
Lessons You Can Actually Use
So, what does this tell us today?
First, Bitcoin is a master of the "disbelief rally." The best gains in 2019 happened when everyone was convinced the price was going to zero. If you're waiting for the news to be "good" before you buy, you’ve usually already missed the move.
Second, watch the whales—but watch the scammers too. Market liquidity in crypto is thinner than it looks. A single large entity (like PlusToken) can suppress the price for months, even if the "fundamentals" look great.
Your Next Steps
If you’re looking back at 2019 to understand today’s market, do this:
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- Check the 200-week Moving Average. In 2019, this was the "line in the sand" that Bitcoin refused to stay below for long. It remains one of the most reliable floor indicators in the history of the asset.
- Ignore the "Zuck" moments. Whenever a giant tech company announces a "crypto killer," it usually just ends up being free marketing for Bitcoin. Don't trade the hype; trade the reaction.
- Audit your own "disbelief." Look at the assets everyone is currently calling "dead." History shows that’s where the 90% annual returns usually hide.
The bitcoin price in 2019 taught us that the market can be irrational, manipulated, and hated by the government—and still be the best investment on the planet.