Bitcoin Search Volume Hits 12-Month Peak as Retail Panic-Checks $60K Crash
Google Trends hit 100 as Bitcoin plunged to $60K, signaling peak retail panic while U.S. spot buyers stepped in to buy the dip.
Retail anxiety is back, but not the kind bulls wanted. Global search interest for “Bitcoin” maxed out at a score of 100 on Google Trends for the week of Feb. 1, the highest reading in a year. The spike didn’t accompany a rally; it tracked a violent 26% drawdown that saw Bitcoin torpedo from $81,500 to $60,000 in just five days, a level untouched since October 2024.
Panic Scrollers vs. Spot Bidders
The data paints a picture of a market divided by time horizon. While the mainstream public rushed to Google to verify the damage, on-chain signals suggest seasoned capital stepped in to catch the falling knife. Bitcoin Magazine reports that Bitcoin has since stabilized in the low-$70,000s, but the sentiment damage is done.
Bitwise’s Head of Europe, André Dragosch, interpreted the search velocity as a signal that “retail is coming back,” though the context implies curiosity born of distress rather than FOMO. In contrast, institutional pipes showed signs of accumulation. CryptoQuant’s Head of Research, Julio Moreno, noted that the Coinbase Premium flipped positive as price tagged $60,000. This metric, tracking the spread between Coinbase (USD) and Binance (USDT), indicates U.S. spot buyers were aggressing the bid while offshore markets liquidated.
The Crypto Fear & Greed Index collapsed to 6 (“Extreme Fear”), a single-digit reading historically reserved for systemic failures like the FTX collapse.
The Volatility Feedback Loop
Historically, search volume anomalies of this magnitude often mark local inflection points. The previous search peak (score: 95) occurred in mid-November when BTC faltered below $100,000. The current read of 100 suggests maximum saturation of retail attention, typically a contrarian signal for volatility exhaustion.
With price rebounding to ~$70,700, the immediate liquidation cascade appears arrested. However, the divergence between “extreme fear” in sentiment and the premium-driven bidding on Coinbase leaves traders navigating a fragile floor into next week.
