Google searches for the Bitcoin halving have surged this year, despite the coronavirus dominating the news cycles and thoughts of the entire world. Not only has interest in the May 12 event, which will see Bitcoin miners’ rewards halved, soared in recent weeks, it has already eclipsed 2016’s levels of halving interest by over 25%, reflecting the increased awareness of Bitcoin across the world.
Twin Reasons Behind Bitcoin Halving Interest Surge
As we can see from Google Trends data, interest in ‘Bitcoin halving’ increased a little throughout the second half of 2019 but really kicked on at the turn of the year:
The reasons for the sudden spike in interest are likely two-fold. Firstly, with the event rapidly approaching there is a more regular flow of news and opinion about the halving floating around the internet, making casual readers more likely to come across the term and want to find out more about it.
Secondly, with the whole world in various states of lockdown due to the coronavirus, many more people are at home, spending their time on the internet, affording the Bitcoin halving a kind of captive audience.
This is echoed in the fact that there was a sudden surge in interest in late February, the time when much of the West began to enforce lockdowns, with interest almost quadrupling in less than two months and hitting all-time highs just as they were taking effect.
2020 Bitcoin Beats 2016 Bitcoin
Taking a step back, we can see that interest in this year’s halving has already surpassed interest in the last halving in 2016, reflecting the increased interest in Bitcoin itself:
We can also see a different pattern with regard to interest in this year’s event. Interest in the Bitcoin halving in 2016 only picked up around the end of May that year, around five weeks before the event itself, whereas this time around there were noticeable search increases in May of last year, a whole year before the event.
Searches dropped off in August last year, but generally speaking haven’t looked back since, doubling in December, February, and again this month. Such a growth in interest so far ahead of the event speaks volumes about how interest in Bitcoin itself has grown and potentially speaks to a greater understanding of the impact of the halving in the Bitcoin narrative.
Number Go Up?
Whether this increased interest will result in more people actually buying Bitcoin of course remains to be seen, but at the very least it is encouraging that interest in such a fundamental aspect of its nature is seeing increased interest and, hopefully, understanding.
Of course, a few more zeros on the price wouldn’t hurt either…
