# Bitcoin's Available Price Record Covers Only the 2020 U.S. Recession

By Enna Lee

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/investing/47595
Published: 2026-11-03T11:27:47.000Z
Updated: 2026-11-03T11:27:47.000Z
Section: Investing

> The available Bitcoin price series begins Dec. 1, 2014, years after the Great Recession ended.

Bitcoin (BTC) fell during the brief 2020 U.S. recession, but the available price record cannot show how it performed in the Great Recession, limiting comparisons across downturns.

The downturn began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009. Satoshi Nakamoto posted Bitcoin’s proposal to a cryptography mailing list on Oct. 31, 2008, while the contraction was underway. The available Bitcoin price series begins Dec. 1, 2014, more than five years after the recession ended.

The timing separates Bitcoin’s creation from its later trading record. The proposal described a peer-to-peer electronic cash system without a trusted third party, but the price series cannot establish how BTC moved during the 2007-09 recession. Without price observations from that period, it cannot show whether Bitcoin rose or fell during the downturn.

The 2020 U.S. recession ran from February through April. Though brief, the contraction was broad and severe. Bitcoin experienced a sharp selloff in March and later recovered. Brian Foster said investors had “fled for cash in a COVID-induced liquidity crunch.”

On March 15, 2020, at 5 p.m. ET (9 p.m. UTC), the Federal Reserve announced a target range for the federal funds rate of 0% to 0.25%. It also planned to increase its Treasury holdings by at least $500 billion and agency mortgage-backed securities holdings by at least $200 billion over the coming months. Bitcoin’s subsequent recovery overlapped with those measures, but timing alone does not establish that they caused the rebound.

Bitcoin’s payment design avoids reliance on a trusted financial intermediary, but that feature does not show that its market price functions as a recession hedge. The 2020 episode offers one example of a selloff followed by recovery, while the available price record leaves the Great Recession outside the comparison. It cannot establish whether the 2020 pattern holds across U.S. recessions.