U.S. Google Searches for Bitcoin Near Five-Year Low

U.S. Google searches for ‘bitcoin’ fell to a near five-year low in the week ending Aug. 1, with Google Trends assigning the term a popularity score of 18. The drop occurred as the U.S. Senate prepared a cloture vote on the Clarity Act.

Google Trends uses a 0-100 relative scale for search interest. The platform recorded a 100 during the first week of February, when a market selloff pushed bitcoin down about 30% to near $60,000. A score of 18 in early August indicates search volume was less than a fifth of that February peak.

A security incident over the weekend involving the Coldcard hardware wallet, in which more than 1,300 BTC were lost by affected users, did not produce a noticeable rise in search activity for the August week.

A report from River found 49.6 million Americans report owning bitcoin, compared with 28.8 million who report owning gold. The report’s bitcoin figure represents nearly one in five U.S. adults.

Google Trends registered similar low levels in October and September 2023 and in November 2022. Lawmakers have not confirmed bipartisan support for the Clarity Act; the cloture vote is scheduled in the Senate this week.

Google Trends reflects relative public attention through search queries and does not measure ownership, trading volume or on-chain activity.