Published: October 16th, 2024
Google stopped displaying price charts for Bitcoin in its search results over the past four days, an omission that affected other cryptocurrencies including Ethereum.
Users could still access up-to-date charts on Google Finance, however the search engine’s practice of auto-displaying the current price chart of major coins at the top of the page for any related search seemed was suspended or offline as the week's trading session got underway.
X (Twitter) users started posting over the weekend that searching for the price of BTC no longer included a chart at the top of the first search engine results page (SERP). Normal stock price searches were still generating charts.
The sudden loss of instant crypto price charts prompted speculation that Google was attempting to cool the current bull market. Interestingly, searches for ‘DOGE’ were still showing Dogecoin’s price chart on Monday.
Google has generated charts showing current rates of leading cryptocurrencies for more than a year, allowing users to check prices quickly without logging on to a dedicated trading platform or data site. The feature displayed near-real-time price charts for Bitcoin, Ethereum and others in search results.
Separately, data from Google Trends showed that search volumes for the term ‘Bitcoin’ had dropped to a one-year low on Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. Global interest in the term had fallen to 26 per cent of its YTD peak search volume, which happened the week commencing March 7th.
Search interest for BTC is highest in El Salvador, which was the first country to make BTC a form of legal tender. Nigeria is number two, a country with surging inflation and where many see crypto as a venue for capital flight, prompting a crackdown by authorities.
In early February 2024, Bitcoin’s Q1 ascent looked to have stalled going into the first session of the month, potentially signaling the start of an unsettled period for the world’s biggest crypto by market cap.
Figures from CoinGecko recorded a less than one per cent increase on Monday 5th February, when it peaked at USD 43,233. At the previous Friday’s close, however, BTC was the singular focus for investors with big crypto holdings. A report from CoinShares showed inflows to crypto investment products totaled USD 708 million on Friday, 2nd February. That raised year-to-date inflows to USD 1.5 billion and total crypto assets under management globally to USD 53 billion.
Almost all of the inflows (99 per cent) went into BTC-related instruments. Good news for Bitcoin bulls, but there are signs that stormy weather may be on the horizon.
Also on 2nd February, defunct crypto firm Genesis made a legal request to liquidate USD 1.4 billion in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) shares. GBTC recently converted from a restricted fund that only accredited investors could access, to a spot Bitcoin ETF. The change means any shares that were once locked down can now be traded.
If Genesis gets the go-ahead from the courts to offload its GBTC holdings, there were fears that it could create more selling pressure if other investors perceived a rising wave of GBTC redemptions. An estimated USD 5.7 billion in GBTC holdings were sold off in January 2024, likely explaining how quickly the buzz arising from the SEC’s long-awaited Bitcoin ETF approval dissipated after trading kicked off.
The YTD winner was altcoin Chainlink (LINK), changing hands at USD 19.52 on Monday 5th Feb., an 8 per cent rise over 24-hours. Over the previous seven days, LINK had risen by close to 36 per cent.
In October 2022, analysts noted that Bitcoin had begun to shed its reputation as an asset marked by extreme ups and downs. Data from blockchain analytics firm Kaiko showed BTC's 20-day volatility tracked closely to the NASDAQ for the first time in nearly 24 months.
In an unexpected swapping of roles, Bitcoin’s price remained stable from the beginning of September 2022. The NASDAQ and the S&P 500 dropped by 12 per cent and 11 per cent respectively in the same period.
Bitcoin’s price has historically been correlated with technology stocks, though with a higher ‘beta’ (propensity for volatility) than other financial assets. Despite the impressive gains posted in 2021, its high beta rating has kept many investors from using it as safe-haven asset. Despite a price plunge in June 2022, BTC and other major cryptos were some of the best-performing assets in Q3-22, after the mighty Greenback.
Bitcoin’s price did drop back to lows last seen in 2020 in early October, after core US inflation topped another 40-year high. Both BTC and equities fell on the news, before quickly bouncing back to their previous ranges.
The previous plunge seen in June 2022 followed the release of American inflation data for May, which showed consumer prices rising at a burning hot rate of at 8.7 per cent. Investors saw it as a sign that the Federal Reserve wouldn’t be altering its aggressive policy course any time soon, prompting a risk-off move that shifted money away from riskier assets.
However, while high inflation has held firm for months, crypto’s price action avoided lurching up or down with subsequent updates to the consumer price index (CPI) inflation measure. Stocks, on the other hand, were in slow-but-steady decline.
BTC’s stability was all the more notable given the hawkish stance taken by central banks worldwide, which turned many bonds into an opportunity for rapid gains. As Reuters reported in September 2022, Fed policy had sent bond yields skyrocketing.
Bloomberg crypto analysts noted in an October blog that Treasury market volatility had been much higher than Bitcoin volatility in the third quarter. At the time, volatility in stock prices hit all-time highs when compared to price moves for Bitcoin.
With global assets demonstrating weakness against the dollar across the board, even the UN asked the Fed to ease off on further rate rises. Washington’s central bankers were cool to the idea.
