At the end of every year, Google releases data on search terms used most often by its billions of users. According to the company’s 2017 report on popular and trending search terms, ‘bitcoin’ is ranked in second place in the Global News section, which suggests that the search volume for the technology was higher than for some of the biggest news events of the year, such as the Las Vegas mass shooting and the August solar eclipse.

The search phrase "How to buy bitcoin" appeared in 3rd place in the "How to…" category, reflecting the increased public awareness in the cryptocurrency and its breakthrough into the mainstream. This is largely due to the amazing gains in value made by bitcoin throughout 2017. In January, one bitcoin was trading at around $900. By December, the price of a single coin hit an all-time record of $19,783, taking the cryptocurrency’s market cap from $17 billion to $650 billion.

Another point of interest is the source of bitcoins popularity as a Google search term. Bitcoin-related searches are lower in the U.S. when compared to the volume of searches taking place incountries such as the Netherlands, South Africa, Nigeria, and Slovenia.