‘Buy crypto’ Google searches hit record high: The Tie

If Google search trends are anything to go by, crypto euphoria appears to be on the rise again, according to new industry research. 

“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.

Relative search interest for the term "Buy Crypto" is at all-time high on Google Trends pic.twitter.com/4cFIkI0xbp

— The TIE (@TheTIEIO) February 1, 2021

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.