Searches for ‘Buy Bitcoin’ Top ‘Buy Gold’ Queries as Price Soars

According to Google Trends data, searches for ‘Buy Bitcoin’ have surpassed queries for ‘Buy Gold’ this year as Bitcoin saw a major boom, rising from $1,000 in January 2017 to over $7,000 this month.

According to Bloomberg, Adrian Ash, research director at BullionVault, one of the leading online services selling gold, platinum and silver, attributed gold’s declining status and dropping investor interest to the noise around Bitcoin:

“Some investors are also being distracted by the noise around Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Altogether, that’s made interest from new gold investors the weakest since the metal’s half-decade price lows of end-2015.”

This year has been an eye-opener for financial institutions and investors around the world as Bitcoin recorded massive gains. While gold’s gains this year are pegged at 11%, Bitcoin saw over 700% increase and outperformed even the best commodities.

Bitcoin’s performance has been even more surprising given how it was hit hard in September by comments from incumbents such as JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon and a crackdown in China. While many still believe the market is in a bubble, the cryptocurrency’s impact is undeniable.

Earlier we also reported Apple’s co-founder, Steve Wozniak’s comments in favor of Bitcoin over gold:

“There is a certain finite amount of bitcoin that can ever exist. Gold gets mined and mined and mined. Maybe there's a finite amount of gold in the world, but Bitcoin is even more mathematical and regulated and nobody can change mathematics.”

The recent price surge in Bitcoin can also be attributed to the upcoming SegWit2x fork as BTC holders anticipate getting new tokens if and when the blockchain splits. However, just yesterday analysts from Goldman Sachs warned investors against betting on Bitcoin going above $8,000.