The advent of a more hawkish Federal Reserve in 2022, together with the downfall of cryptocurrency platforms such as FTX, Terra, Celsius Network, and others, has been extremely detrimental to the value of cryptocurrencies. A tremendous capitulation by traders and investors alike may be inferred from the fact that the market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies combined has decreased by 70% year-to-date (YTD) to over $770 billion.
According to Google Trends, the number of internet searches for the keyword “buy cryptocurrency” has reached its lowest level since February 2020 as a direct result of the declining demand. Despite this, the most recent research on global consumer payments from Accenture reveals that customer interest in cryptocurrencies is still rather high, despite the market slump that occurred in 2022.
Respondents cited a variety of motivations for their participation, including long-term investing (28%), curiosity (22%), short-term speculation (21%), and others. In the meantime, a separate study conducted by the personal finance portal DollarGeek uncovers the cryptocurrencies that were searched for the most around the world in 2022. As a result, the study provides a rough outlook on which cryptocurrency retail players may invest in moving forward into 2023.
| # | Cryptocurrency | US Monthly Searches | Global Monthly Searches |
| 1 | Bitcoin | 4,570,000 | 28,410,000 |
| 2 | Dogecoin | 729,000 | 5,850,000 |
| 3 | Shiba Inu | 1,290,000 | 4,430,000 |
| 4 | Ethereum | 611,000 | 3,840,000 |
| 5 | Cardano | 247,000 | 1,470,000 |
| 6 | Ripple | 237,000 | 1,300,000 |
| 7 | Safemoon | 178,000 | 1,030,000 |
| 8 | Avalanche | 534,000 | 861,000 |
| 9 | Litecoin | 269,000 | 796,000 |
| 10 | Nexus | 175,000 | 734,000 |
Bitcoin Becomes The Most Googled Crypto In 2022
According to research conducted by DollarGeek in 2022, Bitcoin (BTC) has taken the lead as the most searched cryptocurrency on Google, receiving 28.41 million monthly searches throughout the globe. The interest level is still reasonably high despite the fact that industry professionals are evaluating its quality in comparison to that of other digital currencies. For example, venture capital investor Tim Draper believes that Bitcoin would gain from the ongoing bear market since weaker cryptocurrencies will become relics as the winter continues.
The price of BTC has decreased by about 65% year to date, and some analysts estimate that it will continue to tumble toward $10,000. The majority of people, according to the results of online searches conducted over the past year, have been interested in buying Bitcoin rather than selling it, which shows that the majority of individuals still have never owned Bitcoin.
Meme-Crypto Dogecoin Gets the Second Spot
A worldwide average of 5.85 million searches for “Dogecoin” (DOGE) were conducted each month in 2022, making it the second most popular cryptocurrency after Bitcoin. Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and subsequent teasing of his fans with the possibility of incorporating DOGE payments for in-app purchases put the memecoin cryptocurrency front and center in the headlines.
Nonetheless, it also gained popularity after it was listed on Robinhood, a commission-free trading platform that is based in the United States. The above-mentioned figure from Google Trends demonstrates how these recent events contributed to brief peaks in internet searches related to Dogecoin.
For example, Elon Musk’s eventual acquisition of Twitter in late October occurred at the same time as internet trends about Dogecoin rallied to a perfect score of 100. Although the price of DOGE has decreased by approximately 55% year to date, the data gleaned from online searches suggest that the prospective pool of buyers may be significantly bigger in number than the pool of sellers, much like Bitcoin.
Shiba Inu Emerges as the Third Most Googled Crypto
The total number of monthly internet searches conducted for Shiba Inu (SHIB) around the world was 4.43 million. Despite this, memecoin has surpassed its main competitor Dogecoin in popularity in the United States, with 1.29 million monthly searches compared to DOGE’s 729,000. This is the case despite the fact that Shiba Inu’s price performance in 2022 was worse than that of Dogecoin.
SHIB has lost almost 75% of its value so far in 2022, but the cryptocurrency continues to be discussed in the media because of its entry into the Metaverse and the possible launch of Shibarium, Shiba Inu’s Ethereum layer-2 blockchain. In addition, there was a significant increase in the number of online searches for Shiba Inu because of the cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com.
Crypto.com held the largest SHIB position as of November 2022. The market was concerned that Crypto.com would suffer a financial crisis, which would force the company to unload its SHIB holdings. On the other hand, the CEO of Crypto.com, Kris Marszalek, specified that the increasing SHIB reserves were the result of user purchases.
Ethereum Securing the Fourth Spot Thanks to Merge
Despite the fact that the price of Ether (ETH) has dropped by 67% so far this year, Ethereum is still the fourth most-searched cryptocurrency in the world on Google, with 3.84 million monthly searches in 2022. The Ethereum Merge allowed the second-largest blockchain in terms of market cap to transition from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS), which kept it in the headlines throughout the entirety of the year.
Notably, demand for the keyword “Ethereum” and associated search words such as “Ethereum 2.0” and “Merge” reached its highest level in September, right around the time that the PoS switch took place. It’s also possible that concerns that Ethereum has evolved into security after the PoS upgrade contributed to the rise in interest in the cryptocurrency on the internet. Just recently, the cryptocurrency platform Paxful discontinued support for ETH, giving the same explanation.
Cardano Bags the Fifth-Highest Google Searches
Cardano (ADA) has been the subject of an average of 1.47 million internet searches per month in 2022, elevating it to the position of the fifth-most Googled cryptocurrency in the world. Specifically, the momentum behind the Cardano trend began to ramp up in January 2022, when the price of ADA outpaced both Bitcoin and Ether.
However, later searches have been decreasing despite the fact that the Vasil hard fork in September did not cause an increase in interest in the cryptocurrency. Avalanche (AVAX), Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP), SafeMoon (SAFEMOON), and Nexus (NXS) are some of the other cryptocurrencies that deserve special recognition for being among the most searched cryptocurrencies in 2022.
