Each quarter compounds its three months — the coarsest grain that still shows a cycle turning inside a single year.
This page compresses Bitcoin's history into four cells per year — Q1 through Q4 — the coarsest grain of the Coinfuty returns grid that still shows a cycle turning inside a single year. It is built from the same daily closes as the daily, weekly, monthly and yearly views, and the coin selector re-cuts the same grid into crypto quarterly returns for any listed coin.
Each quarter compounds its three calendar months, and each month is its last daily close against the previous month's last close, in USD on UTC boundaries. Compounding means a quarter's figure is what a position held through those three months would actually have returned, and the Median row summarizes each quarter across all years.
Bitcoin seasonality is most often told in quarters — strong fourth quarters, soft second ones — but the ranking moves as new years land. The current quarter stays italic and ringed until it closes, so an in-progress figure is never mistaken for a final one.
Bitcoin is up 0.4% quarter-to-date in Q4 2026, compounding October through the daily close of 12 October 2026 (UTC). The figure keeps moving until the quarter closes.
Bitcoin returned +42.6% in Q3 2026, its most recent completed quarter, compounding that quarter's three monthly returns. The median Q3 return on record is +0.9%, so it came in above the norm.
Bitcoin's 2026 quarters so far: Q1 −22.1%, Q2 −14.1%, Q3 +42.6%, Q4 +0.4% (in progress). Compounded together they put Bitcoin down 4.2% year-to-date.
2025: Q1 −11.8%, Q2 +29.8%, Q3 +6.4%, Q4 −23.1%. The strongest quarter was Q2 at +29.8% and the weakest Q4 at −23.1%; the full year compounded to −6.4%.
Across 16 completed Q4s on record, the median Q4 return for Bitcoin is +28.1%. The best Q4 was 2013 at +466.9%, the worst 2018 at −43.5%, and 10 of 16 closed positive. The current Q4 is excluded until it closes.
By median return across all completed years, Q4 has been Bitcoin's strongest quarter at +28.1% and Q3 its weakest at +0.9%. Q1 +2.3%, Q2 +18.7%, Q3 +0.9%, Q4 +28.1% are the four medians; they shift as each new year is added.
Across 65 completed quarters, Bitcoin's best was Q2 2011 at +1,943% and its worst Q3 2011 at −68.5%. 39 of 65 quarters closed positive.
The Median row answers this live: it shows each quarter's median return across all recorded years, and the strongest quarter is its highest cell. Fourth quarters have often led historically, but the ranking shifts as new years are added, so the live grid is the source of truth.
By compounding the quarter's three monthly returns, each of which is the month's last daily close against the previous month's last close, in USD on UTC boundaries. Compounding matches what a buy-and-hold position over the quarter would have earned.
Because returns compound. A +10% month followed by a −10% month leaves −1%, not 0%. The quarterly figure multiplies the monthly factors together, which is the return a held position would actually see.