Bitcoin · worst-case entry
What if you'd bought Bitcoin at the exact 2021 top?
$100/month starting 2021-11-08 — the single worst entry day of the era, straight into a 77% crash. Real adjusted closes, T+1 execution, versus a lump sum on the same day.
If you invested $100/month in Bitcoin from 2021-11 to 2026-07...
$8,471
grown from $5,600 invested over 4.6 years. +$2,871 (+51.27%)
DCA from the top vs. lump sum at the top
Same total money — $5,600 — deployed two ways from 2021-11-08: $100 every month, or everything on the peak day.
| Strategy | Final value | Total return | Annualized |
|---|---|---|---|
| DCA from the top ahead | $8,471 | +51.3% | 18.1%/yr IRR |
| Lump sum at the top | $5,258 | -6.1% | -1.3%/yr CAGR |
Growth over time (DCA)
Dashed: cumulative invested · Solid: portfolio value
Investment schedule
- Per investment
- $100.00
- Frequency
- Monthly
- Window
- 2021-11-08 → 2026-07-17
- Duration
- 4.6 years
- Number of investments
- 56× $100.00 each
Results
- Total invested
- $5,60056 × $100.00
- Final value
- $8,471as of 2026-07-17
- Total return
- +$2,871+51.27%
- Annualized (IRR)
- 18.13%/yrcompounded over 4.6 years
Buying the 2021 crypto top: what actually happened
On November 8, 2021, Bitcoin closed at $67,567 — the top of the pandemic-era bull run. Within a year the price had collapsed 77% to about $15,800, wiped down by the Luna collapse in May 2022 and the FTX bankruptcy that November. It took until March 2024 for the price to close above the 2021 top again.
A buyer who put everything in on that exact day rode the whole drawdown at full size. A monthly DCA buyer kept purchasing through the entire bear market — and those 2022–2023 buys at $16,000–$30,000 are what drive the difference between the two outcomes below.
Cite this stat
A $100/month DCA into Bitcoin started at the November 2021 all-time high (2021-11-08) would be worth $8,471 on $5,600 invested (+51.3%) as of July 2026, while the same total invested as a lump sum at the peak would be worth $5,258 (-6.1%).
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Frequently asked questions
- What happened after the November 2021 all-time high?
- Bitcoin fell 77% from the 2021-11-08 peak, bottoming on 2022-11-21. The price first closed back above the peak on 2024-03-04.
- Did DCA beat a lump sum bought at the 2021 top?
- As of July 2026: DCA from the top is worth $8,471 versus $5,258 for a lump sum of the same total money invested on the peak day. DCA is ahead — the crash purchases lowered the average cost far below the peak.
- How is this calculated?
- Yahoo Finance adjusted closes (dividends reinvested, splits applied). Monthly buys on the same day-of-month as the peak date; buys landing on non-trading days execute at the next trading day's close (T+1). Annualized return is IRR computed on the actual cashflow schedule. No fees or taxes modeled.
Change the numbers
Test a different amount, start date, or frequency against the same Bitcoin dataset.