Bitcoin Fever: Google Searches for ‘Buy Bitcoin’ Surge as Price Hits All-Time High of $80,000
In a clear sign of investor enthusiasm and speculation, searches for the term “buy Bitcoin” on Google have
surged
, following the cryptocurrency’s all-time price high of $80,000 on March 12, 202The
unprecedented demand
is being driven by a combination of factors, including widespread adoption by major corporations and financial institutions, increasing trust in Bitcoin as a
store of value
, and the ongoing
debasement of fiat currencies
by central banks around the world.
The
dramatic price rise
has been fuelled in part by the announcement that Tesla, Inc., led by Elon Musk, had invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and would start accepting it as a form of payment for its products. This was followed by
MicroStrategy
, a business intelligence company, revealing it had purchased an additional $10 million worth of Bitcoin. Meanwhile,
Mastercard
and
Visa
, two of the world’s largest payment processing companies, have both announced plans to integrate Bitcoin into their platforms.
The surge in interest for buying Bitcoin has also been attributed to the
perception of Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation
. With central banks around the world engaging in unprecedented monetary easing, many investors are turning to alternative assets like Bitcoin as a way to protect their purchasing power. As
JPMorgan Chase
‘s strategist, Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, put it, “The main driver of Bitcoin is going to be this fear of inflation and the erosion of purchasing power by central banks.”