Google trends reveal a huge spike in “buy crypto” searches, a possible precursor to wider retail adoption.
“Buy crypto” searches on Google surged
to all-time highs in January, far exceeding the previous peak of early
2018, according to cryptocurrency analytics company The Tie.
The keyword received a perfect Google Trends score of 100, which indicates maximum relative interest.
A
similar spike was also observed for Ethereum, which achieved a perfect
score of 100 before falling back down to a still-strong 65.
Bitcoin (BTC) searches also spiked, but remain well below the 2017 bull market high.
The
Tie also shared the following chart with Cointelegraph, which
highlights a sharp rise in searches for “best crypto app” and “best
crypto exchange.”
“Relative
search interest for popular crypto terms is at an all-time high on
Google Trends,” Treyce Dahlem, research analyst at The Tie, to
Cointelegraph.
He continued:
“Whether this is due
to the recent price rallies that we’ve seen, speculative traders from
Reddit looking to leave their mark on more assets, or even a macro shift
in the way investors are searching for a hedge against inflation, one
thing is clear: There is a rapidly growing interest in crypto and new
investors are looking for the best way to get into the ecosystem.”
The explosive search trends seem to coincide with growing retail interest in both Ethereum and altcoins. Ether’s (ETH) price has doubled since the start of the year, having just reached a new all-time high above $1,500.
Meanwhile, the overall cryptocurrency market in January reached $1 trillion
for the first time. While the initial spike was largely due to Bitcoin,
altcoins have supported the trillion-dollar valuation with greater
intensity over the past month. In the process, Bitcoin’s dominance rate
has fallen to 62% from a high of 72% in early January.
Google
search trends are sometimes correlated with movements in the overall
cryptocurrency market. Higher relative searches signal growing retail
awareness of digital assets, which is often a precursor to wider
speculative adoption.
The Tie revealed to Cointelegraph that
social media engagement surrounding crypto has also skyrocketed. On
Twitter, aggregate tweet volumes devoted to cryptocurrency reached 3.3
million in January, up from 1.3 million in September 2020. January’s
aggregate tweet volume was 181% higher than a year earlier.
If Google search trends are anything to go by, crypto euphoria appears to be on the rise again, according to new industry research.
