Online interest in digital assets has taken a significant hit in the last few months. Searches on Google related to “crypto” has seen a major drop after reaching an all-time high in May 2021, according to recent data trends.
In the last two months, the cryptocurrency market has seen little to almost no movement. As a result, cryptocurrency optimism has witnessed a decline in searches related to “crypto” and other terminologies related to it.
Google Data Shows a Decline in the Overall Search Trends
As per the new data released from Google Trends, the term crypto managed to get a score of 17 recently. This shows a major decrease from the reference point of 100 in May 2021. The same is the case with Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), which saw a similar downward trajectory.
But there has been a continued decline in the search terms for such terminologies since May 2022, which is just a month earlier from the collapse of the Terra Luna ecosystem. There was a little spike in interest in November 2022 due to the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX.
The decline in interest is primarily due to the stalemate of Bitcoin’s price which is currently stuck in the range of $26,000 to $28,000 for the past 10 weeks now. Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital, describes it as “lackadaisical,” which refers to the lack of “institutional enthusiasm,” currently.
Guy Turner, also referred to as “Coin Bureau Guy,” suggested on his Twitter account that the decline in the interest also overlaps with the trading volumes, which have reached the lowest point in the last 32 months.
BTC Sentiment Neutral, Leading To a Fall in Interest
The case is no different for BTC as data shows the same fall in interest for the top-notch cryptocurrency in the last few years. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index from Alternative also shows that the market sentiment has been moving in the range of 50 to 53.
This is referred to as the Neutral zone and has been in that range for almost a month. An important thing to note is that the interest hasn’t dropped in all domains of crypto though.
The search volumes for “DeFi” or “decentralized finance,” saw a major increase in the last couple of months. Similarly, Google searches for the term “meme coin,” also saw a major peak at the start of May.
The country with the high most of searches related to cryptocurrency is Nigeria. On the other hand, South American countries have the lowest scores for searches related to cryptocurrencies.
An important thing to note is that there has been a growing interest in the searches for AI (artificial intelligence), though many believe it to be the most recent “tech fad.”
A Decline in the Investments from Institutions
There has been a decline in institutional interest in the past few weeks. In April, institutional interest in cryptocurrencies continued to remain high despite the market seeing a decline.
In a survey carried out by Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH), more than three-quarters of institutional investors out of the 325 participants claimed that they’re “highly” or “significantly” curious about investing in crypto ETFs.
BBH is a financial services firm that carried out its survey with more than 300 financial advisers, fund managers, and institutional investors from different countries including the UK, US, EU, and China.
However, that hasn’t been the case recently since there is a continuous decline in interest from institutional investors. This is because the price of BTC and ETH haven’t seen much of a movement in the last 10 weeks or so.