Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies have proved to be some of the most volatile assets over the years, keeping many veteran investors skeptical. Yet, believers who have been holding ("or hodling," as the cryptocurrency community refers to it) the decentralized virtual currency since early or even mid-stages have seen handsome gains.

Bitcoin's Surge And Dip

A majority of mainstream investors had their first enthusiastic encounter with Bitcoin during the massive bull run of late 2017 that saw the cryptocurrency's market price storm past $20,000.

The subsequent market correction was just as enthusiastically dubbed the burst of the bubble. Does that mean that the people who invested ahead of the bull run, but didn't divest at the time suffered major losses?

Five years from Monday, Bitcoin closed at $263.07 on June 29, 2015, meaning a $1,000 investment at the time would have gotten an investor 3.801 BTC.

See also: How to Buy Bitcoin (BTC)

Two and a half years later, on December 17, the leading cryptocurrency hit an all-time high of $20,089. This means the $1,000 invested in 2015 would be worth about $76,363.71, giving a whopping 7636% returns for those who divested at the time.

Today, the same $1,000 spent to purchase 3.801 BTC in June 2015 is worth $34,936.89 -- not as absurd as the December 2017 height, but still a considerable gain of 3493%.

How Does It Compare With Stocks?

This compares with a 45.3% increase in the Dow Jones Industrial Average index over the same time period. S&P 500 is up nearly 48.4% over the course of the five years, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 index has nearly doubled, adding 99.1%.

Among some of the major stocks, Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) has added 285.2%, Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is up 523.5%, and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has added 190.5%.