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The popularity of Bitcoin is growing, and there is no clearer way to visualize this than in our timelapse infographics, which look at Bitcoin search volume on Google and “Bitcoin” searches per 1,000 people, as estimated by search engine optimization (SEO) company Ahrefs.
The infographics are timelapses of the above statistics over the decade between September 2015 and May 2024, showing figures for a selection of countries across all major continents.
Study of Bitcoin Search Trends: 2015-2024
First, let’s look at Bitcoin search volume across our chosen countries: the US, Austria, Turkey, Poland, Netherlands, Mexico, Italy, India, Great Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Canada, Brazil and Australia
You will see that the US has long dominated the search volume — although challenged at times by Turkey and, most recently, Brazil.
Search dominance is one thing, but for a more illuminating metric, let’s explore BTC searches per country per capita — aka, how many searches for Bitcoin were made per 1,000 people for each country and for each month of our nine-year period.
While the first chart captures global interest in Bitcoin — you can see how search volume increases every time there is a crypto bull run — the second chart shows how excitement peaked country to country, as different countries caught the fever at different times.
Other key trends and takeaways spotted within the search data:
- The U.S. has consistently produced the highest Bitcoin search volumes over the last ten years.
- Bitcoin search volumes tend to explode when Bitcoin hits new all-time highs, as seen in December 2017, November 2021, and March 2024.
- Bitcoin search volumes are consistently high in countries with a history of currency devaluation and economic crises, like Brazil and Turkey.
- Mexico — the world’s second-biggest receiver of remittances — regularly ranks among the top 15 countries with the highest Bitcoin search volumes over the last ten years.
- As of May 2024, the Netherlands is fairly consistently the most crypto-curious country in terms of “Bitcoin” searches per 1,000 people.
- India’s rank dropped from 2nd in December 2016 to 12th by May 2024, hurt by the Indian government’s hostile stance toward the crypto industry.
Brazil — A LatAm Crypto Hub (2015)
Let’s go back to September 2015, when Bitcoin was trading between $200 and $300.
Ethereum (ETH) had just mined its genesis block, and the U.S. was leading the world in Bitcoin conversations.
But Brazil, in particular, had its fair share of Bitcoin investors in the country in 2015 and was ranked fourth, behind the U.S., Germany, and the U.K. in search volume.
The reason for Bitcoin’s growing popularity in Brazil was its investment property as an inflation hedge. A history of currency devaluations and economic depressions led many in Latin America to turn to Bitcoin as a solution.
Between 2012 and 2015, the Brazilian Real (BRL) lost more than half its value (-55%) against the U.S. dollar (USD), hitting a then-record low of 0.2361 BRL/USD during the period.
In contrast, the world witnessed Bitcoin’s value grow from less than $10 to over $400 during the same period.
Globalization of Bitcoin (2017)
By the crypto bull market of 2017, the Bitcoin market frenzy had spread to Asia, mainly India and Turkey.
India and Turkey ranked second and fourth, respectively, among the countries with the highest Bitcoin search volume in the world in December 2017. India’s youthful population took advantage of numerous centralized exchanges that had set up shop in previous years to participate in Bitcoin’s runup to an all-time high of over $19,000.
During the Bitcoin bull run of 2017, “Bitcoin” searches per 1,000 people in a nation spiked with the Netherlands, posting the highest number for this statistic at the time.
To this day, the Dutch continue to be among the most crypto-curious people in the world marked by the high number of “Bitcoin” searches on Google.
According to a report by Deutsche Digital Assets, the Netherlands and Switzerland exhibited the highest adoption rates in Europe in 2023, while France and England posted the lowest adoption rates.
Turkey Buys Bitcoin (2021)
For years, Turkey’s economy has been on the brink of collapse. The Turkish lira (TRY) has lost about 93% of its value against the U.S. dollar, from 0.47 TRY/USD to 0.03 TRY/USD in the last ten years, as of June 2024.
Unsurprisingly, Turkey has always ranked high in terms of both Google Bitcoin searches and the number of “Bitcoin” searches per 1,000 people. This trend accelerated in 2020 and 2021 as the value of the Turkish Lira continued to slide to fresh lows against the USD.
In November 2021, the TRY/USD rates dropped nearly 30% after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan forced the nation’s central bank to implement aggressive interest rate cuts to boost the economy despite high inflation and currency devaluation in the country.
In parallel, BTC/USD rates scaled a new all-time high of $69,000 in November 2021.
A research survey conducted by KuCoin showed that by 2023, more than half of Turkey’s population owned cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin was the most popular cryptocurrency in Turkey, attracting nearly 71% of crypto investors in the region. 52% of survey respondents said “future wealth” was their crypto investment motivation, while 37% named “value storage.”
Bitcoin provided Turkish investors with an alternative to traditional assets like gold, allowing them to hedge against currency devaluation and ineffective central bank monetary policies.
Even in the depths of the Crypto Winter of 2022, Techopedia’s infographics showed that Turkey continued to post strong Bitcoin search volume.
Brazil Tops Bitcoin Search Results (2024)
Techopedia’s infographics showed that in May 2023, Brazil overtook the U.S. for the number one spot in the list of the highest Bitcoin search volumes worldwide.
Compared to its Latin American neighbors, Brazil has a mature crypto industry with a well-developed institutional crypto market and openness to using decentralized finance (DeFi) among crypto investors.
The country’s eagerness to provide regulatory clarity to the crypto industry has created an environment for investors to embrace Bitcoin and altcoins in a safe manner.
Lawmakers had even proposed to exempt federal taxes on the purchase of BTC mining equipment and software such as ASIC rigs in an attempt to attract more crypto companies to Brazil. However, the proposal was not included in the landmark crypto bill passed in December 2022.
According to research firm Chainlysis, demand for Bitcoin is higher in Brazil than in Argentina, where stablecoins like USDT are preferred as a hedge against currency devaluation.
Chainalysis said:
“Meanwhile, Brazilians display a higher demand for Bitcoin and especially altcoins, which are more typically used for long-term investment and speculation.”
Techopedia’s infographics showed Brazil topping Bitcoin search volumes in May 2024, ahead of the U.S., Germany, Turkey, and Spain.
The Bottom Line
The Bitcoin search volumes highlight crypto hotbeds like Brazil, Turkey, The Netherlands, and other regions that are not mentioned by the mainstream media as frequently as the US, South Korea, and El Salvador.
Readers also have to remember that regions like China, where Google’s search engine is banned, were not included in the infographics.
Another notable absentee was South Korea — a region where crypto is immensely popular among retail investors — due to Naver’s search engine attracting nearly 58% of monthly active users in the East Asian nation.
