Bitcoin sure peaked everyone’s interest in 2018. While it’s price may have been something of a letdown, the asset itself continued to intrigue members of the public well into the year.
Internet Bitcoin Searches Were High
Bitcoin has proven to be something of an enigma over the past 12 months. While the currency ultimately reached its peak of nearly $20,000 last December, it has since entered a phase of consistent drops that has caused it to lose over 80 percent of its value. At press time, it is trading for just over $3,300, leading many crypto enthusiasts – particularly long-term investors and hodlers – to sulk and stew in their rooms.
But even though the price drops never let up, bitcoin appeared to retain its following. A new Bloomberg report suggests that among the top Google searches for the year were “What is Bitcoin?” and “How to Buy Ripple.” Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies continued to garner their time in the spotlight despite the price catastrophes occurring at every corner.
A Double Standard
These questions and others like them were amongst the top-searched items in both the United States and the United Kingdom, according to Google Trends. The latter was the fourth-ranking “how to” question making Google’s list.
While this may seem positive on paper, there are two sides to the equation one must consider. On one hand, the evidence suggests that cryptocurrencies have not lost their popularity. Despite the everlasting price falls, many members of the public remained adamant that bitcoin and its altcoin cousins remained valid investment tools that could boost their net worth and diversify their portfolios.
A Darker Side of the Plane
On the other hand, several analysts claim that one of the main reasons behind the present wintery conditions and the massive drop in bitcoin’s price is a lack of investor knowledge and education. It is said by many industry experts that bitcoin became as big as it did because people simply entered the market without considering the risks that came with it. This caused the space to burst and come crashing down.
The fact that so many people were asking these kinds of questions well into 2018 – when bitcoin was already showing signs of struggling – suggests that education was still on the shallow end of the pool, and that cryptocurrencies were not mainstream enough to garner enough attention from the public prior to their devastating price falls.
Time to Read Up, People!
If bitcoin and other digital assets are to garner the attention and respect they deserve, investors must be willing to spend time learning about the potential issues and problems that face them. Throwing oneself in head first is only likely to result in injury; testing out the water and checking for depth allows one to formulate a plan.
Do you agree that education is necessary to invest in crypto? Post your comments below.
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