Bitcoin is quickly turning into one of the more profitable markets to have been invested in during 2023, up 136% since the start of the year. If you had invested £1000 in Bitcoin at the start of 2023, this would be worth £2,358 as of 11 December 2023, an impressive gain of £1,358.
Every year, the personal finance comparison site, finder.com, follows popular types of investments to see how they perform against each other. By fictitiously investing £1,000 in the seven different types of investments, the aim is to understand the risk associated with different approaches.
Bitcoin has topped Finder’s investment challenge for 3 of the 4 years it has been running and has increased in value by 522% since the start of 2020.
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Bitcoin leads the Investment Challenge every year except 2022
The value of Bitcoin has been increasing rapidly in value in the last months of 2023 and the cryptocurrency is up 169% since the start of the year, as of 11 December.
A similar pattern of growth was seen in the 2020 Investment Challenge, when Bitcoin had an impressive growth of 292%, with an investment of £1000 worth £3,919 by the end of the year.
However, 2022 brought turbulence in the markets with the conflict in Ukraine amongst other factors, and Bitcoin came last in that year’s Investment Challenge with significant losses. If someone had invested £1,000 in Bitcoin on 1 January 2022, they were left with just £387 by the end of the year.
This highlights the volatility of riskier investments like cryptocurrencies, which can see gains in one year but losses in another, without a guarantee that you will see an overall return on your investment.
Tesla also performed strongly in 2023 but was overtaken by Bitcoin
Tesla NASDAQ:TSLA was another strong performer in 2023, leading the investment challenge for most of the year. The value of Tesla peaked on 17 July, when a fictitious £1000 investment at the start of the year was worth £2,459.
However, Tesla reported a drop in third-quarter earnings in October 2023, falling short of market expectations and leading to a dip in value. As of 11 December, a £1000 investment in Tesla would be worth £2,114.
Bitcoin overtook Tesla on 23 October 2023 and has been leading the challenge since then, with an upward trend in value that looks set to continue for now.
The FTSE 100 and the dollar see losses in 2023
As of 11 December 2023, all methods in the 2023 Investment Challenge have seen returns apart from the FTSE 100 and the US dollar, which have both seen losses.
The US dollar is currently in last place, a reversal of 2022 when it won the Investment Challenge. If you had invested £1000 in the dollar at the start of 2023, it would now be worth £953, meaning you would have lost £47. An investment in the FTSE 100 would also have seen a slight loss as of 11 December, returning £980.
If you had placed £1000 in a savings account, invested it in gold, or invested it in a popular UK fund, you would have seen slight gains – an average of £54 – but far lower than those seen with a Tesla or a Bitcoin position.
Methodology
The 2023 investment challenge tracked the performance of the most popular fund in the UK, the best savings account at the start of the year, the dollar, the FTSE 100, Tesla shares, Bitcoin and gold. The tracker follows the current value of a fictitious £1,000 investment at the start of 2023 in each product.
