Is the Red September Curse Over? Bitcoin Set for Best September on Record

In brief

• Bitcoin is up 7.33% for September, just ahead of 2024's 7.29%, which would make it the best September returns going back to 2013.
• A fourth straight green September would be the longest streak on record, after six consecutive red ones from 2017 to 2022.
• The record depends on the Sept. 30 close: at $83,600, Bitcoin is sitting on the line.

Red September might finally be dead. Bitcoin is up 7.33% this month, which would be the best September in the Coinglass price tracker's history if nothing weird happens between today and tomorrow.

The margin is razor-thin. September 2024 returned 7.29%, so the record hangs in almost a tie with one day left.

Bitcoin closed September in the red in eight of the 13 years from 2013 through 2025, including six in a row from 2017 to 2022. Even after this year's gain, September's average return is negative 2.34%, the worst of any month, per data from CoinGlass.

But the tide has been turning. Bitcoin finished September up 3.91% in 2023, 7.29% in 2024 and 5.16% in 2025. This year would make it four in a row, the month’s longest green streak in the data.

The “Red September” curse, if we can still call it that at this point, is not unique to crypto. The S&P 500 has also averaged a loss in September since 1945 with different factors from vacations to tax loss harvesting tactics explaining this behavior.