Buy Bitcoin Searches at 2-Year Lows, Ethereum Merge Queries See ATH (Google Trends)

Demand and interest in bitcoin appears to be waning further among retail investors, at least according to Google Trends data.

At the same time, searches for the upcoming Ethereum Merge event have soared to a new all-time high days before the blockchain’s transition to PoS.

No search for Bitcoin

Google’s trending data shows the behavior and interest of retail investors as they tend to inquire about certain investments on the world’s largest search engine. The rule of thumb is that when a particular asset is hot (which usually means the price is rising), more and more people are looking for it – an example evident in the middle of the bull run in late 2020 and 2021.

When the asset cools and lacks volatility, the trend changes. This has been the case in recent months, when BTC lost over 50% of its value and then settled around the $20,000 mark.

“Bitcoin” searches worldwide have fallen to their lowest levels since December 2020 – just ahead of the bull market. At the same time, “buy bitcoin” inquiries have plummeted to levels last seen over two years ago.

A completely different story with Ethereum

While retail investors show little or no interest in the biggest cryptocurrency, they seem quite determined to find out more about the second biggest, and especially the most important event in history – the merger.

As The crypto potato explained before, the merger will complete the network’s transition from the energy-intensive proof-of-work mechanism to proof-of-stake – considered more nature-friendly. The process is almost at an end as Ethereum prepares to complete it, perhaps in the next few days.

Compared to the Bitcoin halving by some, the merger has had a profound effect on retail as Google searches for “Ethereum Merge” have skyrocketed to a new all-time high.

This is somewhat expected, given its importance. Despite being seen as a long-term positive move that should improve the network in several aspects, billionaire Mark Cuban recently warned that the merger could have a short-term “sell-the-news” type of impact.