The price of bitcoin is barely staying above $20,000 – a price the cryptocurrency traded several years ago. The recent sell-off caused the search term “bitcoin” on Google Trends to hit a 2022 high and skyrocketed in 12 months.
Does the boom in search term data suggest investors are looking for answers? Or has this crash made prices so attractive that those late in the trend are scrambling to learn more?
Google Trends shows the highest interest over the past year | Source: Google Trends
Google Trends Search Volume for “Bitcoin” Hits 2022 High
Speculators would currently claim that bitcoin is underperforming from a purely price standpoint. Despite being declared dead over 400 times by the mainstream media, by most other standards, the cryptocurrency is fine.
In fact, based only on Google Trends data, it has been more popular over the past year and throughout 2022. Since the inception of BTC, the current spike is registered as the third highest in the history of the coin (pictured below).
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The 2021 high in April follows around $65,000, and the 2017 rally took bitcoin price to $20,000 for the first time, the highest ever recorded. During that time, few people knew what a cryptocurrency was, whereas today the top cryptocurrency is a household name. The growing search interest at the time made perfect sense.
Google Trends shows the highest interest over the past year | Source: Google Trends
Crypto Market Plunges Increases Volume
However, this is not 2017. People now know what bitcoin is, or at least have heard of it before. They know it traded at these prices in the past, and seeing it here again is causing a lot of fear among existing investors.
But what if, unlike those searching in panic, the search volume is from opportunists who see this price level as an opportunity to get into an area that was once viewed as “opening”? Those who are concerned are looking for “Bitcoin is dead” instead.
Did lower prices make Bitcoin more interesting? | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com
In addition to the increase in search volume for the word “bitcoin”, trading volume has also seen the biggest increase since mid-2021. Trading volume is highest as investors surrender and place bottoms. An increase in volume indicates that an unusually high amount of coins is being exchanged.
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Increasing volume can also exist when a trend is consolidating, so anything is possible with the most profitable speculative assets in history. There must also be a buyer for every coin sold, so someone is buying at these prices.
It is easy to analyze trading volume and get predictive information from it. What is the growth in Google Trends search volume really telling us?
obey @TonySpilotroBTC on Twitter or join TonyTradesBTC Telegram For exclusive daily market insights and technical analysis education, Please note: The content is educational and should not be considered investment advice.
Featured image from iStockPhoto, Charts from TradingView.com
