Last week, the relative volume of Bitcoin searches on Google was one of the lowest in the past four years and the lowest on record in the past twelve months.

While a first look might hint at the newest trends in finance and technology stealing the spotlight away from the world's leading cryptocurrency, considering how the price of Bitcoin has behaved in similar past situations, it's clear that Google Trends' latest numbers alone don't tell the whole story.

Google Trends analyses relative interest in a topic based on the number of searches over a certain time frame on a scale of 1 to 100.

In 2024, Bitcoin's popularity was highest in March, which coincided with the cryptocurrency price reaching an all-time high of $73,079.

Since then, the number of searches has steadily declined, reaching its lowest level (33 in 100) from October 6 to 12.

While this year's interest in Bitcoin, as measured by Google, is in line with the asset's price stagnating around the $65,000 resistance level since March, and while interest on Bitcoin is usually lower during crypto bear markets than during bull markets, other numbers must be taken into consideration before jumping to conclusions.

Correlation Or Causation?

The most recent popularity plunge happened on the eve of Bitcoin surpassing the resistance level it has been stuck under for most of the past seven months. This is not unusual, as the price of Bitcoin has rocketed after periods when its allurement seems to be fading.

In 2023, the interest of Google users for Bitcoin was low throughout the year. It hit its lowest level (14/100) on the week of October 8 to 14. Since then, however, the price of BTC has gone up by 143%.

In 2020, a similar situation occurred. During that year, searches about Bitcoin hit the bottom on the week of October 16 to 22. At the time, its price was $11,000, and it kept going up until reaching an all-time high of $63,075 in April 2021.

On X, Vivek Sen, founder of the marketing agency Bitgrow Lab, shared an intriguing graph comparison that points to interest in Bitcoin being at its lowest right before its price explodes.

Others have also noted that there might be a trend here, but, like the correlation of this year's price behavior to Bitcoin's popularity, correlation doesn't necessarily mean causation.

Non-Market Factors Influencing Popularity

An issue that might be bringing down the popularity of Bitcoin on Google is Google's lack of popularity.

Research from analyst firm Gartner published at the start of the year pointed to a 25% fall in search engine volume by 2026. Alan Antin, Vice President Analyst at Gartner. "Generative AI(GenAI) solutions are becoming substitute answer engines, replacing user queries that previously may have been executed in traditional search engines."

Also, as the number of cryptocurrency users worldwide rises, so do the market-related services that aid their growth.

With people resorting more to crypto-related news websites, wallets, and social media experts, the use of search engines for crypto-related searches decreases.

Google's recent decision (or technical glitch) to remove the Bitcoin price charts, a feature that has been available since 2018, might negatively impact the popularity of the term on the search engine.

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