Altcoins, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency

The September Effect – Is the Superstition For Real?

  • The September Effect has it that markets present their worst returns during that month in the year
  • Bitcoin is not resistant and typically sees its worst returns in September
  • How are the crypto and traditional markets doing this time around?


The September Effect is a phenomenon that hints regarding markets tend to give their worst returns throughout that month, something we announced at the start of the month. With over half the month have passed, how is the crypto market-shaping upon this semi-superstition?

Bitcoin Succumbing to the September Effect

Bitcoin started September at $11,700, climbing up to $12,000 just hours into the ‘cursed’ month. Even, it couldn’t break into this barrier. All thoughts of Bitcoin defeating the September Effect vanished very soon – it lost $2,000 within 48 hours, meaning that September started with a 16% loss.

As a result of that drop, Bitcoin has been staging an implausible recovery, reaching $11,000 at the time of writing, giving us a 6% loss this month.

The cryptocurrency market cap began September at $362 billion, which rose sharply to $377 billion alongside Bitcoin’s rise. Following Bitcoin’s collapse, despite that, the market cap has followed suit, coming in at $335 billion at the time of writing, leaving us with a 7.45% loss this month.

Alt Coins Managed No Greater

Has the altcoin market cap managed any better fighting the September Effect? It began September at $162 billion and also experienced a brief boost before collapsing as people sold their alts alongside Bitcoin’s crash, leaving us with an altcoin market cap of $150 million.

This gives us an almost identical September loss due to the total market cap, coming in at 7.4% down compared to September 1.

All Markets Experiencing the Pain

It’s not just the crypto markets that are pitching this month – the S&P 500, NASDAQ, Dow Jones, and even gold had all endured minor collapses within 48 hours of the calendar flipping from August to September and are now at a loss compared to where they were at the end of last month.

We can’t blame the September Effect for these reduced returns. We will have to go some way to beat March’s downturn. Still, it is pretty incredible that history has repeated itself once more and so early into the month.

However, there are still ten days left of September, so let’s see if the markets can remove the September Effect juju’s spell this time.

Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply