Who in the World is Interested in Cryptocurrency?

Several weeks ago I invested $40 in Dogecoin. That dog was just so damn cute. That’s what a lot of people expect me to say, amiright? You know, middle-aged woman, and all… But that’s not really why. I mean, there isn’t a Shiba Inu on the planet that isn’t cute, but I don’t make investment decisions based on emotion. I’m not stupid. I also spent 30 years as an accountant and working in finance, so I know a little about money.

Also, a $40 investment is nothing. Now, $40 isn’t nothing, particularly if you don’t have much, and I can think of several necessary and tangible – and not non-fungible – things I could have purchased that didn’t involve a joke and a meme. But. In the world of investing, I’m not going to fill my retirement coffer very fast starting with $40 at my age. Which is none of your business, really, but then again, being smart about investing includes not denying your age, because age, risk aversion based on age, and length of investments are really important. So, I’m 56. There. And I just dropped $40 into Dogecoin and you’re wondering why and wishing I would get to the point.

For fun. I did it for fun.

Seriously. I just want to see where it goes. I’m curious. And I can afford to let that $40 sit there for a few years, or completely tank, to satisfy my curiosity. It’s kind of like a science experiment. Now, all science experiments start with curiosity. Curiosity is the bedrock of all human progress. Will that plant kill me? Why did that apple hit me on the head? Can I fly? Why are Shiba Inu’s so damn cute?!

Curiosity is also how we learn to navigate the world, starting in infancy. Who didn’t eat dirt as a toddler? And apparently a whole lot of people are currently trying to figure out how to navigate the world of cryptocurrency and not eat dirt. Many, many millions of people from all over the globe, to be less than precise. 2,556,000 people per year in the U.S. alone do a Google search on cryptocurrency, to be a little more precise.

In fact, the United States is the source of more crypto searches than any other nation on the planet. That doesn’t mean people in other countries aren’t interested. Far from it. The country that ranks second on the list is India, with 804,000 searches per year. The top 13 countries all have more than 100K searches per year. 696,000 searches are done around the world every month. Now, given populations and ratios, that’s probably not that much, and a lot fewer searches than are done on any one of the Kardashians, but still. People want to know. People are curious. And that curiosity is growing. And that curiosity means that everything from the powerhouse Bitcoin to the joke of Dogecoin are likely going to go mainstream in the not-too-distant future.

A recent New York Times article noted that:

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have gone from curiosity to punchline to viable investment.

Maybe my $40 won’t be a complete waste.

So, who made this list I keep referring to? Invezz is an investment education group – think along the lines of The Motley Fool – that offers a variety of investment articles and tools for anyone wanting to dip their toes in the waters of personal finance. For free.

"Invezz is a team of finance experts who care about helping people achieve financial freedom. Since being founded back in 2012, the site has been a collective effort to demystify investing by providing simple-to-understand, unbiased information."

The folks at Invezz took a look at the data and came up a list of the top 50 countries where curiosity in cryptocurrency is highest. That’s the top 50 out of 115 countries where searches are conducted. Here it is:

And here’s the top 10 list for Europe:

There’s a blog post that goes into more detail on the numbers and answers some questions about the safety, investment potential and legitimacy of cryptocurrency. Suffice it to say, there’s no telling what my $40 is going to do in the coming months, much less the coming years, but it no longer feels very radical to have bought into the trend, literally and figuratively.