Google search interest for the term ‘Bitcoin’ is close to its all-time high in seven developing nations

By Selena On Apr 4, 2020

With growing economic uncertainty around the world, Google is interested in searching for the term ‘Bitcoin,’ which is also rising in some countries. While the rest of the world is a long way from the highest search volume, a group of developing countries has seen spikes.

The google search Bitcoin rate spiked amid the economic downturn

Swollen search volumes come from countries in both Africa and South America. Both are continents with underdeveloped banking infrastructure and relatively weak national currencies.

The Coronavirus pandemic has confused consumers, businesses, and investors around the world. Large parts of the world are still in some form of social restraint, and newly reported cases of the disease have yet to reach the plateau.

The report from Reuters stated:

“Unemployment in the US is on the rise, European economists expect to cut more profound and central banks around the world are increasingly creative to overcome this situation.”

Amid the widespread economic landscape, interest in Bitcoin seems to be increasing. However, increasing enthusiasm is not global.

As the crypto market analyst at ARK Invest, Yassine Elmandjra, emphasized in the following Twitter topic, particular groups of developing nations are close to or at their all-time highs in terms of relative Bitcoin Google search interest:

The relative Google search interest for Bitcoin is approaching all time highs in several emerging markets.

Burkina Faso, which saw zero Bitcoin interest in late 2017, has seen an explosive rise this month. pic.twitter.com/HeUEiN1rWn

— Yassine Elmandjra (@yassineARK) April 1, 2020

The chart above shows a rapid increase in the number of individuals searching Google for the term Bitcoin. Internet users in Peru, Guatemala, Zambia, Uruguay, Kenya, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso all follow a similar trend.

Naturally, the all-time high for search interest in these markets came in late 2017. This is consistent with the rest of the world and coincides with Bitcoin’s all-time highest price.

Opposite to the developing markets mentioned above is the search concern for the whole world combined. As emphasized below, Bitcoin’s interest in Google search volume is still long compared to 2017/2018.

Source: Google Trends

Are developing countries still interested in BTC?

While the increased search volume indicates that the groups as mentioned above of South American and African countries are increasingly interested in Bitcoin, it does not give any indication as to why enthusiasm may increase. Naturally, the rising price assumption is that growing economic instability is pushing people who live in places where banking policy is often destroyed, forcing their citizens to find a harder form of money.

Unfortunately for those who are most optimistic about Bitcoin’s position as a planetary store of value or a safe haven asset, the figures don’t quite match the hypothesis. Admittedly, it’s hard to get an accurate picture of the entire market. There are no statistics for the use of global exchanges from a particular locality or strict peer-to-peer transactions.

However, the trading volume on peer markets is quite helpful in illuminating these emerging markets. UsefulTulips.org collects both LocalBitcoin and Paxful transaction volume and reports it in US dollar equivalent. This removes any local currency fluctuations from the image.

UsefulTulips’s data shows that Bitcoin purchases are increasing in some of the countries mentioned. In Guatemala, there was a spike in transactions last week. Similarly, Kenya and Zambia also saw an increase in transactions in the end.

Elsewhere, the image is different. Nigeria, once one of the countries most interested in Bitcoin, is still seeing very high volumes compared to other developing countries, but it does not necessarily have an upward trend. Meanwhile, both Peru and Uruguay saw a decline in transactions.

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