Searches for ‘Bitcoin’ and ‘crypto’ are down on Google and Naver. Fear and Greed indices show investors are still worried about price drops.
The podcaster and crypto advocate Mario Nawfal wrote on X that there is “close to no retail interest in crypto right now.” “None of my normie friends or family ask me anything about crypto anymore,” Nawfal wrote, posting a screenshot of a chart showing a sharp drop in Google searches for the term “crypto.”
The drop in interest coincides with sluggish Bitcoin price performance and dashed hopes of a “Santa rally” on the markets over Christmas. Bitcoin prices have slumped at the end of 2025. Google’s Google Trends data hub records search interest changes on a scale from zero to 100.
At the time of writing, global searches for “Bitcoin” stand at just 19, a six-month low, and just a single point above 2025’s low of 18, recorded in mid-June. Searches for “crypto” have also crashed from over 50 at the start of the month to just 25 on December 28. In South Korea, where Naver is the dominant search engine, similar trends have taken root. On a similar 0-100 scale, Naver searches for “Bitcoin” have dropped from a mid-month high of 46 to just 15 on December 28, with “cryptocurrency” experiencing a similar slump.
CoinMarketCap’s Fear and Greed Index, a market sentiment measurement tool, locked firmly in the “fear” zone. Another Fear and Greed Index, run by South Korea’s Upbit Data Lab, meanwhile, shows sentiment hovering between the “Fear” and “Neutral” ranges. Nawfal said that memecoin losses have taken their toll on retail investors’ confidence.
“Do we need to start pumping the dino coins again to get retail to come back?” Nawfal mused. “After the TrumpMelania memecoin drama, it seems that retail lost a lot of faith in the space.” However, the Bitwise executive warned that meteoric price rises were unlikely in 2026. “I think the four-year Bitcoin price cycle is being replaced by a 10-year grind,” Hougan said.
“I mean, there are big new forces in the world.” These forces, he explained, were the emergence of crypto exchange-traded funds, progressive regulation in the US, and “the growth of stablecoins and tokenisation.” “I think those forces are bigger and stronger than the forces that historically caused the four-year cycle.” So, specifically, I expect the market to be up next year.
Search interest in Bitcoin and crypto has fallen on major search engines, with Google Trends showing global Bitcoin searches at 19, near a six-month low, and crypto searches at 25 on December 28. The slump aligns with a softened Bitcoin price performance and fading hopes of a Santa rally in late 2025. Industry voices note waning retail enthusiasm, with Mario Nawfal saying there is “close to no retail interest in crypto right now.” South Korea mirrors the downturn, with Naver Bitcoin searches dropping to 15 on December 28, and similar declines for cryptocurrency.
Fear and Greed indices sit in the fear zone, and Upbit Data Lab shows sentiment hovering between fear and neutral. Bitwise executive Hougan warns that meteoric price rises are unlikely in 2026, arguing that the traditional four-year cycle is being replaced by a longer ten-year grind due to the rise of exchange-traded funds, regulatory developments, and the growth of stablecoins and tokenisation. Looking ahead, analysts see structural shifts that could support resilience, including regulated products and broader tokenisation. The forces shaping crypto markets appear bigger and stronger than in the past, potentially lifting sentiment and prices over the next year.
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