Bitcoin and Gold: sharp rise in Google Trends searches

Google Trends reveals a significant surge in searches regarding Gold and Bitcoin, due in part to the various banking crises in the US. 

Bitcoin and Gold: increased search engine queries on how to buy them

According to 90-day statistics from Google Trends, it appears that interest in Gold and Bitcoin is rising sharply. 

Indeed, the query “how to buy bitcoin” reached an exact score of 100 during the day on 20 March. The same thing happened with the query “how to buy gold,” though on 6 April. 

Specifically, the gold-related search term generated significant interest in regions such as Singapore, Australia, St. Helena, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Canada. Currently, the query score is around 62, according to Google Trends data.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin-related interest on Google Trends comes from regions such as Nigeria, Guam, Cameroon, St. Helena, and Mauritius.

Not only that, this data emerged after the failures of three large banks in the US: Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, and Signature Bank. Indeed, on the search engine, the most searched queries in mid-March included words such as “banking crisis” and “bank runs.”

Bitcoin and Gold as “store of value” work as safe-haven assets

Both Bitcoin and Gold have always been regarded as “store of value” assets that can serve as safe haven assets in times of market uncertainty or disastrous macroeconomic situations. 

Not only that, Bitcoin is often referred to as “digital gold,” precisely because it is considered the virtual, decentralized version of the classic gold bullion. 

According to Glassnode’s on-chain data, there has been a strong correlation between Bitcoin and Gold prices over the past 12 months. 

In this first quarter 2023, Bitcoin (BTC) went from a price of $16,500 on New Year’s Eve, to $23,000 in mid-February. BTC is currently worth $29,500, after also exceeding $30,000. 

The price of Gold (XAU) also rose from $1,823 on New Year’s Eve 2023 to $1,810 in mid-February. Currently, Gold is worth $1,985, touching as high as $2,010 in early April. 

BTC leads in number of transactions in B2B sector

Recently, CoinsPaid, a platform dedicated to crypto payment solutions for the B2B sector, released its report for the first quarter of 2023. 

From what emerged, it really seems that even in B2B, Bitcoin ranks first in terms of number of transactions. In practice, on the CoinsPaid platform, the number of BTC transactions accounts for 62.5% of the total. 

Next, CoinsPaid sees Tether (USDT) transactions in second place with 10.4% of the total. In third place, however, would be Ethereum (ETH) with 10.2% of transactions out of the total. 

The platform also points out that in the first quarter of 2023, the number of total transactions increased by as much as 3.5 times to 212,637. 

Again, the increased use of the platform and crypto could be a consequence of the US banking upheaval.