This came after a months-long bear market and untypical price stability at the end of last year when the asset stood helplessly below $17,000. Somewhat expectedly, though, the price increase has caught the attention of retail traders.
Retail Investors Back at it
2022 turned out to be one of the worst years for bitcoin in terms of price action, with the asset ultimately losing roughly 65% of its USD value by the end of it. There were multiple reasons behind this massive decline. Some included macroeconomic issues, such as the galloping inflation, but also the industry collapses of former giants like Terra and FTX harmed all participants.
Bitcoin had dumped below $17,000 at the end of 2022, and the first week of 2023 saw its inability to overcome that level. However, that finally happened on January 9, and BTC never looked back. Just the opposite, it skyrocketed to roughly $23,000 by the end of January, marking its best month in over a year.
Perhaps the most important moment after breaching $17,000 came when bitcoin jumped above the 2017 ATH of $20,000. This psychological line was also the point where retail investors decided to reenter the space, at least according to the analytics company Santiment.
Its latest tweet reads that addresses holding up to 0.1 BTC had stalled in 2022 but shot up in numbers amid the rally, growing by 620,000.

