Data from Google Trends shows that retail investors’ interest in the cryptocurrency industry has been gradually declining in recent months.
The situation is quite similar when looking at particular assets, such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).
Google searches typically display the behavior of retail investors, who tend to follow the crowd and get involved in hot assets when their popularity and price are booming. The 2017 and 2021 bull runs are prime examples, as both periods saw a large influx of such investors.
The past several months, though, have been quite the opposite. Although BTC is up by over 50% since the start of the year, it’s more than 60% down from its Nov 2021 peak at $69,000. Somewhat expectedly, the overall interest in the asset and the entire industry has been diminishing.
This is evident by the declining Google searches for the words “crypto” and “cryptocurrency.” Both are nowhere near the 2021 highs. The queries for crypto, in fact, have gradually declined to their lowest levels since the last week of 2020 – meaning they are down to a 29-month low.
By looking at individual crypto assets, such as BTC and ETH, one can observe that both have declined in popularity as well. Ethereum searches, in particular, are down to the lowest since the first week of December 2020.
As mentioned above, the Google queries tend to spike amid enhanced price volatility. However, that would be difficult to achieve at the moment, given the relatively low trading volumes. As the graph below demonstrates, the current numbers are far from the 2018 and 2020 peaks.
Despite the explosive start of the year, BTC has calmed in the past several weeks and has failed to breach the $28,000 level. The support at $26,000 has also acted as a shield against the bears’ attempts to push the cryptocurrency south.
Most larger-cap alts have performed similarly. In fact, among the few gainers lately were some memecoins, such as PEPE, but they were unable to contribute enough to increase the overall crypto searches.
According to some reports, institutional investors have also stayed away from crypto lately. However, analysts from CryptoQuant believe this trend can change by the end of the year, which could trigger the start of a new cycle, especially with the Bitcoin halving scheduled to take place in 2024.
