What cryptocurrency keywords are retail investors paying attention to according to Google Trends?

Original Title: "Google Trends as a Retail Barometer: Key Insights"

Author: Stacy Muur, Web3 Researcher

Compiler: xiaozou, Jinse Finance

The second decade of Bitcoin is halfway through, and the 20th anniversary is not far off. During this period, the crypto world has undergone unpredictable changes influenced by market sentiment, political strategies, and the alternating cycles of bull and bear markets.

Despite these fluctuations, new users continue to enter the crypto world through various channels. What are the most popular topics? Let’s explore the answers in this article.

1. Common Keywords

To better understand the changes in user interest, I analyzed Google Trends over the past five years. This period covers both bull and bear market cycles, providing an objective perspective.

People frequently search for general concepts like "crypto," "blockchain," and "token." Unsurprisingly, the search volume for these keywords is proportional to the market's upward trends.

However, these searches do not reveal intent. To better understand user interest, it is helpful to take a closer look at intent-based searches.

Historically, the primary uses of cryptocurrency have been trading, investing, and speculation. Following closely are airdrops, but they do not match the recent search popularity of keywords like "trade" and "invest." Nevertheless, passive income remains a topic of interest for users well-versed in cryptocurrency.

2. Trading-Related Queries

Since we are discussing trading, let’s delve deeper into user brand awareness and key entry paths.

User interest in topics related to CEX (Centralized Exchanges) and DEX (Decentralized Exchanges) reflects that CEX trading volume dominates over DEX trading volume. Despite various opinions, DeFi remains a small part of the broader crypto market, where centralized exchanges like Binance cannot be underestimated.

Key Observations:

• The popularity of CEX peaked in late December 2019 and fell to a low in mid-March 2021.
• Binance has consistently led in search popularity among top centralized exchanges in 2024.

• Interest in DEX hit a low in the summer of 2021 but reached an all-time high by the end of November 2024. This may have been driven by a new round of Bitcoin bull market and a surge in meme coin activity on Solana DEXs.
• Among DEXs leading in TVL, PancakeSwap dominated search interest in May 2021. By December 2024, Uniswap was in the lead, followed by Raydium.

• The popularity of crypto derivatives peaked in 2021, but protocols like Hyperliquid have recently reignited interest compared to Drift Protocol and Jupiter.
• Driven by discussions related to Trump on Polymarket, prediction markets surged in November 2024. However, the interest quickly declined, reflecting a trend similar to that of November 2020.

3. Token Search Dynamics

The search popularity of the term "crypto" is only matched by "Bitcoin," which is the primary query term related to crypto topics.

Bitcoin's search popularity peaked during the 2021 bull market and fell to its lowest point at the end of 2019. Even after Bitcoin first reached a price of $100,000 at the end of 2024, it failed to regain its former popularity.

Meanwhile, the query frequency for other top market cap tokens, including Ethereum, remains relatively stable, although XRP has seen a significant increase following its recent rebound.

4. Narrative Popularity

When comparing user interest across major verticals (such as DeFi, RWA, DePIN, GameFi, and the recently popular AI x Crypto), user interest in the first two areas is sustainable. In contrast, other areas rely more on hype.

Recently, there has been a surge in interest in RWA and AI x Crypto, while DePIN, DeFi, and GameFi remain in secondary positions.

The popularity of meme coins soared to unprecedented levels by the end of 2024. Meanwhile, AI-related tokens are gaining attention, with March 2024 being a key moment.

5. 2024 Keywords

Now that we have a rough understanding of current interest in Web3 and the main attention projects, let me share the most popular search queries in the crypto space right now (sorted by search query volume).

• Bitcoin ------ The unbeatable attention magnet
• Ethereum
• DEX
• CEX
• L1 and L2 ------ A close match
• DeFi
• Altcoin
• RWA
• AI Agent
• Memecoin
• DePIN
• NFT
• GameFi
• Metaverse

Here are the rankings of the biggest Web3 brands:

• Bitcoin
• XRP
• TON
• Binance
• Ethereum
• Solana
• USDT
• TRON
• Bybit
• Metamask
• OKX

All other brands' searches, including those frequently discussed on Crypto Twitter, such as Vitruals, Ethena, or any L2 chain, lag far behind the above brands.

What can we conclude?

Most topics discussed on Crypto Twitter do not reach a global audience. Retail investors still enter the crypto world through centralized exchanges, while DeFi captures only a small portion of crypto interest. Many of today’s hot brands remain beyond the sight of retail investors.