Bitcoin, the flagship cryptocurrency, has recently seen its price jump by 20% in a short period of time, helping it cross the $5,000 mark. Right after the jump, Google Trends data shows searches for the cryptocurrency more than tripled.
According to Google’s data, search interest went from roughly 33 to 100 (out of 100) right after the surge, but quickly fell to stay between 50 and 75. Currently, search interest is falling below 50 – a significant improvement over the 25 it had before. It’s worth noting total search data isn’t available, and Google’s numbers are compiled by algorithms.
Per the search engine’s data, the countries with the most interest in the flagship cryptocurrency were Nigeria, South Africa, the Netherlands, Austria, and Switzerland. Countries like Ghana, St. Helena, and Slovenia occupied other top spots, while the United States and Canada were out of the top 10.
China’s Baidu, the country’s leading search engine, also saw BTC top the list of hottest keywords.
Due to the recent price surge, #bitcoin tops today's Baidu hottest emerging keywords. (Baidu is like China's Google) pic.twitter.com/AWtVw9aOzw
— cnLedger (@cnLedger) April 4, 2019
Notably, the trend seems to confirm studies that suggest there’s a correlation between bitcoin’s price movements and search interest for the cryptocurrency. Search engine marketing firm SEMrush found, back in 2017, that bitcoin’s price had a 91% correlation with crypto search interest on Google at the time.
The study found that as bitcoin’s price moved up, people started searching for it to learn more about it and what was going on. This, presumably, as mainstream news outlets often only cover BTC and other cryptos when prices move significantly.
It’s believed a mysterious 20,000 BTC order was behind bitcoin’s recent surge, which helped it reach a five-month high. Google has, last year, banned cryptocurrency ads from its platform, stopping businesses in the industry from advertising on its platform. The ban was rolled back months later.
Microsoft’s Bing, one of Google’s largest competitors, has also banned cryptocurrency-related ads. Recent data shared by the tech giant showed it blocked over 5 million crypto ads last year.
