What Was Happening in 2013
In January 2013, Bitcoin was trading around $21. Most people had never heard of it. The entire market cap was under $300 million. There was one major exchange that mattered: Mt. Gox, a Tokyo-based platform originally built for trading Magic: The Gathering cards.
Starting a $100/week DCA in 2013 meant buying bitcoin when almost nobody else was. By April, the price had already jumped to $139 as the Cyprus banking crisis drove a wave of interest. Then came the real fireworks: Bitcoin surged to $1,132 in November before crashing back to $732 by year end. Your weekly purchases would have accumulated enormous amounts of bitcoin during those early months when prices were measured in double digits.
It would have felt strange. Risky. Most people around you would have called it a scam or a joke. But those $100 weekly purchases at $21, $28, $92, and $139 are now worth more than almost any other investment made that decade.
The Crashes You Survived
Starting in 2013, you would have lived through every major Bitcoin crash in history. The Mt. Gox collapse in 2014 sent prices from over $1,100 to $217, an 81% decline that took two years to recover from. The 2017 bubble popped from $14,156 to $3,709. COVID briefly cratered markets in March 2020. The 2022 bear market took Bitcoin from $57,000 to $16,547 as Luna and FTX collapsed. And the current correction from $115,758 to $68,000 is still playing out. Through all of it, your DCA kept buying, accumulating more bitcoin every single week regardless of the headlines.
- Mt. Gox Crash: -81% ($1,132 to $217)
- 2017 Bubble Pop: -74% ($14,156 to $3,709)
- COVID Crash: -27% ($8,780 to $6,430)
- Mid-2021 Correction: -39% ($57,878 to $35,040)
- 2022 Bear Market: -71% ($56,994 to $16,547)
- 2025-2026 Correction: -41% ($115,758 to $68,000)
Run your own scenario
Try different amounts, frequencies, and start dates with real historical data.
Open DCA Calculator →Ready to start your own plan? Read our Bitcoin savings plan guide. Wondering if you should invest all at once instead? See our DCA vs lump sum analysis. Not sure how much to allocate? Our sizing guide walks through practical frameworks.