halving cycle

Bitcoin’s strong start to 2023 is persisting despite numerous headwinds, and is currently outperforming the S&P 500 Index by nearly 60 percentage points.

Following Bitcoin’s (BTC) stellar start to 2023, SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci believes “we’re through the bear market” and expressed confidence in his firm's crypto investments.

However, "the Mooch" qualified the statement by adding, “That is a guess. We don't know.”

In an April 6 interview with Yahoo Finance, Scaramucci noted that Bitcoin has consistently outperformed every other asset class over longer periods of time, saying:

“But any time that you've held Bitcoin in a four-year rolling interval, so you pick the day, hold it for four years, you've outperformed every other asset class.”

Scaramacci also expressed his bullish outlook for the leading crypto by market cap ahead of the next halving cycle, which is set to take place in early March 2024 according to NiceHash.

Bitcoin has historically operated on a four-year cycle, with the start of an upwards trend occurring soon after each halving cycle.

The theory behind the price cycle is that block rewards being halved makes the BTC in existence more scarce, and therefore more valuable.

Bitcoin has recorded gains of nearly 70% in 2023 according to Cointelegraph Pro, increasing from $16,521 to $28,060 compared to the S&P 500 index rising by just over 7% during the same time period.

Bitcoin’s enviable start to 2023 also comes amid what can only be described as poor market and regulatory conditions that may yet weigh down the price.

Crypto institutions based in the United States are struggling to find banking partners and liquidity following the collapse of crypto-friendly banks such as Silvergate, Silicon Valley, and Signature Bank and there are fears that the U.S. is putting into place a policy to prevent banks from interacting with crypto.

Related: Bitcoin ‘faces headwinds’ as US money supply drops most since 1950s

Additionally, the two largest crypto exchanges in the world according to CoinMarketCap — Binance and Coinbase — have both been subject to recent scrutiny from regulators.

Coinbase received a Wells Notice on March 22 notifying of possible enforcement action from the Securities and Exchange Commission, while Binance has been sued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission after allegedly violating trading and derivatives rules

Yet, despite these events, crypto sentiment remains positive.

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index, an indicator used to measure crypto sentiment, is currently sitting in greed territory and is pushing for highs that haven’t been seen since November 2021 — Bitcoin's all time high.

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