Bitcoin’s Top Traction in 2023: El Salvador, Nigeria, Netherlands, Brazil, and Switzerland Lead
Throughout 2023, global interest gravitated significantly toward Artificial Intelligence (AI), according to Google search trends. Despite the prominence of cryptocurrencies in recent years, searches related to crypto, Bitcoin, and Web3 saw a noticeable decline in rankings on Google. Instead, AI-related keywords such as ChatGPT took the spotlight. This shift in interest away from Web3 might be attributed to the market upheavals of the previous year, marked by events like the downturn of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, Terra, and Luna, which likely affected public enthusiasm.
Between 2020 and 2022, Google was flooded with searches related to cryptocurrencies from various corners of the globe. However, around August 2022, these crypto-centric searches gradually diminished, making way for an increased focus on AI-related inquiries, as per a report by CoinTelegraph, citing Google Trends data.
To provide context, while AI-related searches attained a robust score of 91 on Google Trends, searches concerning Bitcoin scored a comparatively lower 22 out of 100.
For Bitcoin, the most traction was generated this year from El Salvador – the first nation in the world that recognised BTC as a legal tender alongside its fiat currency. Other nations that contributed to crypto-related searches on Google this year includes Nigeria, Netherlands, Brazil, and Switzerland.
The graphical representation of crypto’s downfall on Google Searches this year have been floating on X. Many members of the crypto community are not showing any hysteria around this turn of events however. They believe, AI is a newer point of interest for the masses whereas a lot about crypto is already known and understood by those interested, which could explain the drop in search counts. In fact, some crypto supporters even posted that AI should indeed be on the top, interest-wise.
Crypto’s descent on Google Search does not come as quite the shock. Back in June this year, Google searches for cryptocurrency related keywords had sunk to a 29-month low. Multiple hack attacks on crypto protocols and global regulatory uncertainty around crypto were touted among reasons for this dip at the time.
AI garnered significant interest from regions like Vietnam, China, the Philippines, and Myanmar throughout the year. Notable AI-related searches included inquiries about Google Bard, Meta AI, and GrokAI. Additionally, concerns and apprehensions about AI encroaching on job opportunities emerged as prominent themes among these top searches.