It has been over 15 years since Satoshi Nakamoto introduced Bitcoin to the world, and a lot has happened within this timeframe. From being called a pyramid scheme, rat poison (sq), and proclaimed dead hundreds of times, to becoming a trillion-dollar asset with a dozen exchange-traded funds tracking its performance on the world’s largest financial market.
Its adoption curve, which has recently been linked to that of the Internet from 1997, has seen some deviations on its upward trajectory, but the overall trend is quite promising. Google Trends data also shows that retail traders have gradually returned to the scene, but some countries are more inclined to look for the primary cryptocurrency than others. Here are the top 5.
El Salvador Reigns Supreme
Perhaps it comes as no real surprise to anyone, but the first country on Google’s query list is El Salvador. After all, the small Central American nation made the headlines in 2021 when it became the first country to recognize Bitcoin as legal tender officially.
Since then, its pro-BTC political leader – Nayib Bukele – and his administration have outlined numerous Bitcoin-related initiatives, including a vet hospital paid with the cryptocurrency, volcano bonds, as well as mining it with excess volcano energy.
Last but not least, El Salvador has been quietly accumulating BTC for the past few years. The nation went through the devastating 2022 bear market and survived multiple attacks by global organizations like the IMF, which criticized its pro-Bitcoin approach.
Data from this tracker shows that the Bukele-led country has $400 million worth of BTC as of now.
Nigeria Follows Suit
The African nation has been battling galloping inflation for years and, at the same time, has blamed the cryptocurrency industry (and Binance) for its devaluating fiat currency. Additionally, the government had placed some sort of prohibition on its banks to stop servicing cryptocurrency clients, which was finally lifted at the end of last year.
Despite this controversy, Nigerians have always been fond of Bitcoin and other digital assets, as shown by many surveys. Google Trends data supports this thesis, as Nigeria ranks second in interest in Bitcoin.
Who Else Is in the Top 5?
While the presence of El Salvador and Nigeria is somewhat expected, given the fact that BTC is legal in one of the countries and the second is struggling with inflation, the other three in the top five are quite surprising. This is mainly because they come from Europe and are nations with strong economies – Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and Austria.
Not a lot has been said and written about the adoption levels of Liechtenstein and Austria, but Switzerland is up there with the most pro-crypto countries, or least some local regions.
There are multiple crypto exchange-traded products on the Swiss market, a local bank offers staking for different assets, and the Canton of Zug allows certain payments to be made with Bitcoin and Ethereum.
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