A lot has been made of Bitcoin’s performance in January of this year. The beginning of the year has never been a month that traditionally takes off for the coin, but in the first 31 days of this decade, the coin rose by 30 percent.

This push is being taken even further a week into February as the cryptocurrency now looks set to try and break the magical $10,000 mark. Having started falling back towards $9,000 a few days back, Bitcoin rallied to a new year-high of nearly $9,700.

But, this is only one side of the story for although Bitcoin has been performing well, and reinvigorating interest in digital currencies, it is not even close to being the best performing coin of this year. There are a number of altcoins that have almost tripled their value in January, indicating a bigger market push in 2020.

The importance of Bitcoin

Ironically, Bitcoin’s relatively muted, but positive performance, in January, and its continued steady growth into February, may well be more of a cause to celebrate than Bitcoin SV increasing in value by over 180 percent in January.

Volatility has long been a double-edged sword for Bitcoin, attracting new users because of the potential for big gains. But, for it to take the next step into institutional interest, it needs to show a level of maturity. The current upward trajectory is one that is indicative of a much more mature market.

It has long been seen that Bitcoin is the head that moves the market. Other coins may perform better than the major cryptocurrency, but in a similar time period, the movements are often well correlated. With this in mind, if Bitcoin does continue to grow at a steady rate, it can only be good for the rest of the market, which in turn boosts Bitcoin again.

Will we see an altcoin season?

One question that has been on the minds of many cryptocurrency enthusiasts since the end of 2017, is if there will be another altcoin season the likes of which followed the 2017 all-time high of Bitcoin.

While it is positive to see a number of major altcoins, such as Bitcoin SV, XRP, Bitcoin Cash and others in the top 10 getting huge spikes in value, the potential for them to overtake Bitcoin as a means to investment still seems low.

Investors are much more institutional-based nowaday, and they are the ones with the major money. These investors are looking for a mature and stable market, not a risky altcoin to throw a lot of cash into.