In the third quarter of this year, over the last three months, it has been Bitcoin that has impressed the most. Altcoins, such as Ethereum, Ripple and others, had their time in the sun earlier in the year.

Looking at the top five digital currencies by market capitalisation, Bitcoin price was way ahead of any competitor in the last three months, with another quarter of the year still to go.

"Bitcoin price is up 74 percent this quarter despite a controversial hardfork."

Altcoins wilt away

With Bitcoin almost reaching 75 percent growth, overcoming the Bitcoin Cash hard fork in the meantime, an altcoin that was not included in this list of performers, it is interesting to see how the others fell.

Ethereum’s rise has been almost negligible in terms of what is expected from digital currencies, it has gone up just 8 percent from $282. to $302.

Ripple has moved backwards, and this after it was the top performer through the first two quarters of the year. Ripple fell from $0.26 to $0.19, declining 26.9 percent

Litecoin has done the best out of the top five altcoins - not including Bitcoin Cash - it has had a 36.5 percent rally which saw it rise from $40 to $55.

This third quarter has shown an about face in terms of altcoins. When the second quarter ended, altcoins were cruising as Ethereum rose over 500 percent and hit an all-time high.

Quarter three, however, has seen those investors return to Bitcoin, despite its tumultuous three months.

Eventful quarter for Bitcoin

Bitcoin has had some big hurdles to overcome, as well as some big wins. There was, of course, the fear of the August 1 hardfork, which sent the price bottoming out before it turned into a non-event.

After reaching a new all time high of just above $5,000, Bitcoin again stumbled at news that China was cracking down on both ICOs, and Bitcoin exchanges.

However, Bitcoin has shown its resilience, bouncing back on both occasions, prompting a lot more interest from traditional investors.

Altcoin boom helped Bitcoin

It seems the huge rallies seen in altcoins in the second quarter was enough to prompt people to get into Bitcoin in the September quarter.

"There was risk in the altcoins, people thought they were overvalued and cycled back into Bitcoin as a more sensible store of value," Charlie Hayter, CEO of industry analysis website CryptoCompare, said.