Bitcoin surpasses Taylor Swift and Beyoncé as the most searched on Google

Bitcoin played the role of “antihero” this week, stealing the spotlight from pop icons Taylor Swift and Beyoncé in Google search popularity.

Bitcoin’s record rally has pushed searches for the largest cryptocurrency to its highest point in more than a year, attracting more searches in the United States than the two music artists combined over the past week, according to Google Trends data.

Bitcoin has repeatedly set new all-time highs in recent days as investors pour into the digital asset. The approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs in January, coupled with excitement over the upcoming halving event expected at the end of April, which will cut the supply of newly mined Bitcoin in half, has helped attract a wave of new American investors to the asset.

Still, search interest does not necessarily indicate purchase intent. The last time Bitcoin saw this level of search interest was in June 2022, when the token fell almost 40% in a single week.

During Super Bowl weekend in early February, searches for Swift were 14 times higher than those for Bitcoin.

However, a March surge in search interest for the digital asset has quickly reversed that relationship, with Bitcoin recording an average search rating of 53 in the past week, compared to Swift and Beyoncé, who had average search ratings of 38 and 9, respectively.

Google Trends data does not show raw search numbers, but uses an index of zero to 100 to show the relative popularity of searches.

A series of market setbacks and high-profile criminal cases have hurt retail interest in Bitcoin in recent years, reflecting some of the anxiety Swift writes about in her late 2022 song “Anti-Hero.”

Even though the token sets a new high for five of the last seven days, search interest has yet to reach the highs it recorded in 2021, when it reached its previous high.

Still, the Bitcoin ETF collection has seen nearly $12 billion in net inflows since its launch. Bitcoin fell 2.7%, after setting an all-time high of US$73,797 on Thursday.