The prolonged downturn for Bitcoin that stretched across several consecutive months finally ended in March and improved markedly in April, when the asset posted its first double-digit monthly gain in nearly a year.
With Ethereum also finishing April solidly in the green, the central question is whether these leading digital assets can sustain their momentum or whether the old market adage “sell in May and go away” will prove prescient again.
BTC’s Best Month in a Year
Although 2025 was widely seen as a bullish period—buoyed by an improving U.S. regulatory landscape and several notable highs for Bitcoin, including a peak above $126,000 in early October—the cryptocurrency registered only two months with double-digit increases: April and May.
The final quarter of that year painted a much different picture, with the last three months deeply negative, and cheaper months also appearing in February, March and August. The downtrend extended into the start of 2026, where both January and February closed with substantial declines of 10.17% and 14.94%, respectively, reinforcing a bearish market structure.
March 2026 offered a modest reprieve: depending on time zone references, the month finished slightly positive. Using CoinGlass data, March registered a 1.81% gain, effectively breaking the string of consecutive negative months.
April delivered the first significant recovery following that extended slump, with BTC climbing 11.87%—its best monthly performance in a year. Historically, April has been one of Bitcoin’s stronger months, and by 2026 it joined a pattern that shows April delivering an average monthly increase near 13% since 2013, behind only October and November in average returns.
May has traditionally been positive for Bitcoin as well, with an average gain around 7.66%. While the past two Mays produced double-digit increases, the three previous Mays were sharply negative—most notably May 2021, when Bitcoin plunged more than 35%, marking its worst monthly loss since November 2018.
ETH in the Green, Too
Ethereum endured a difficult 2025 with nine negative months and a six-month stretch of losses beginning in September. That streak finally ended in March 2026, when ETH rose about 7%, and April continued the recovery with a roughly 7.3% gain.
April ranks as Ethereum’s second-best month on record since CoinGlass began tracking its data in 2016, with the coin averaging nearly 19% gains in April historically. Even more notable for ETH bulls is that May stands out as Ethereum’s strongest month on average, boasting gains above 28.5%.
If historical patterns are any guide, May could be favorable for both Bitcoin and Ethereum. That said, past performance does not guarantee future results—especially amid ongoing global uncertainty—so investors should weigh both historical tendencies and current market conditions when forming expectations.