A quick search on Google Trends shows that “Buy Bitcoin” is trending at its highest level in roughly 5 years. The interesting thing regarding this development is the timing, as BTC is under a lot of pressure right now, having lost 45% of its value in the last 4 months. The retail market is posting record-low interest, and yet “buy bitcoin” is suddenly trending on Google.
Here is the statistic for the last 5 years:
However, recent search activity shows increasing interest in purchasing the cryptocurrency despite its ongoing troubles.
Further Google results show that the interest peaked around February 22, just a few days ago, based on the last 3 months’ action:
The timing of this peak interest in buying Bitcoin is important, as according to one analyst, it is in direct response to a lawsuit against investment company Jane Street, which stands accused of insider trading that exacerbated the 2022 Terra/Luna collapse by withdrawing $85 million in TerraUSD shortly after Terraform’s liquidity pull.
Because of Jane Street’s timely attack, Terraform Labs’ UST crashed hard, wiping out $40 billion in value from its algorithmic stablecoin ecosystem. Now, the former has landed in hot water after this latest revelation. While the accused party denies the allegations, instead attributing Terra’s downfall to its own multibillion-dollar fraud, the timing of the news has fueled speculation that conventional investment arms are seeking a role in tanking crypto projects and profiting from it.
The positive take from this development is that users are realizing some smaller cryptocurrencies are vulnerable to major manipulation by big players, and BTC is the best bet in that scenario. The situation might improve after the passage of the CLARITY Act and increased awareness in the community.
However, one X user didn’t agree with the take, arguing the peak interest occurred right before the Jane Street scandal:
Bitcoin lost as much as 52.15% of its value from its All-time high (ATH) of $126.5k a few weeks ago, when it tested the $60k level. While multiple analysts are pointing out that a further price drop could be on the cards, making claims as low as $55k or even below $50k, the bottom might be closer than we think.
The cryptocurrency is currently trading around the $68k valuation, up around 4.5% in the last 24 hours.
