On Thursday, January 7, 2021, Bitcoin went over $40,000 for the first time in history, thus setting its all-time record. Just a few weeks earlier, the price of Bitcoin was under $20,000.
Apart from Bitcoin, the start of the new year has also seen other cryptos getting into a bullish mood, most notably Ether which has just went over $1,200 for the first time in two years.
That wasn’t the only record the world’s most popular altcoin broke this week. We also saw Google searches for “Ethereum” reaching the all-time high.
Bitcoin Hits $40,000 for the First Time Ever
Bitcoin’s recent surge has led the world’s most popular cryptocurrency to topping $40,000 for the first time in history. The record-breaking moment happened on Thursday, but the price continued its growth, eventually going to near $41,000 on Friday.
The price surge hasn’t been this drastic in a long time. Just a few weeks earlier, Bitcoin was sitting under $20,000. In fact, the price went over that number on December 16, 2020, while it broke the $30,000 mark on January 2, 2021.
Apart from Bitcoin, many other cryptos have been tagging along. Ethereum reached $1,200 for the first time since 2018, with its price aiming towards $1,300. Another milestone set by the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is that the public interest about it is highest than it’s ever been.
Google Searches for “Ethereum” Hit All-Time High
As revealed by Google Trends, the number of searches for “Ethereum” is at a historical high. The number of searches broke the record set in 2018, when the cryptocurrency was going though a similar bull run.
The date when Ethereum’s previous peak in search interest happened is January 13, 2018. That’s when the price of one Ether was $1,432.88, which still remains its all-time high.
Bitcoin, however, is nowhere near its Google search peak achieved in December 2017. Despite being at its highest value in history, the word “Bitcoin” is at 65% of its peak popularity. Still, compared with “Ethereum,” searches for “Bitcoin” are about 5x larger in volume.
Ripple Rebounds After a Price Drop Caused by the SEC
Another cryptocurrency that’s been on the rise in 2021 is Ripple. In the last couple of days of 2020, the price of XRP dropped to almost 0.2, following the news that the SEC’s leaving chairman Jay Clayton is drawing a lawsuit against Ripple Labs Inc..
However, since then, the price of XRP has increased by nearly double, eventually stabilizing at above $0.30. Although it’s definitely a big improvement, the price of XRP is no where near the peak it reached in December 2017, when it was $2.28.
