General interest in bitcoin appears to have increased along with the price rally of the major cryptocurrency on its way to a new all-time high.
Bitcoin's general interest is growing but it is far from the frenzy of 2017
As of last week, Google Trends, a tool for measuring general interest in trending topics, returned a value of 21 for the worldwide search query “bitcoin price (BTC)”.
That is more than double the 10 observed about a month ago and the highest level since June 2019. Bitcoin set a new record high of $ 19,850 on Monday (quotation in real-time), having narrowly missed the previous high of $ 19,783 last week.
The cryptocurrency rose more than 40% in November to record its largest monthly gain since May 2019. What makes bitcoin's rise more impressive is that traditional assets rarely rally 40% to reach all-time highs. in just one month.
However, the retail market is far from being in a frenzy like that of December 2017, when the Google search for "bitcoin price" returned a record value of 100.
Bitcoin's bull run of 2020 has a firmer foundation than it did in 2017, the data suggests
The data validates analysts who say this year's bull run is primarily driven by higher institutional participation. Several publicly traded companies such as MicroStrategy, Square, Cypherpunk Holdings bought bitcoin in the wake of the coronavirus crisis in the global economy, strengthening bitcoin's appeal as a reserve asset.
PayPal has also started offering services for cryptocurrencies, possibly causing a shortage in the bitcoin supply. "The difference between the 2020 $ 20.000 race and the 2017 race is that this current one is against the backdrop of more geopolitical chaos, more adoption but less interest from the general public and less new coin offering," said Clem Chambers. founder and CEO of the financial markets website ADVFN.com.
Many observers expect institutions to deliver more substantial long-term gains. "We believe we have just scratched the surface," said Arjun Subburaj, co-founder and CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Giottus.
"We will have the mother of all bullish races in 2021, when cryptocurrency is adopted by the masses and cryptocurrencies go mainstream." According to Chambers, bitcoin will go over $ 20.000 and the "sky is the limit" in the long term.
Traditional and non-financial media have widely reported reaching $ 20.000 as a record high in December 2017. Therefore, a large increase in retail interest may not materialize until prices establish a foothold above that level. .
