Cryptocurrencies have suffered immensely in 2022 from the onslaught of a hawkish Federal Reserve and the implosions of crypto platforms FTX, Terra, Celsius Network and others.

What were the most-searched cryptocurrencies in 2022?

The total cryptocurrency market capitalization has dropped around 70% year-to-date (YTD) — from $2.5 trillion to $770 million — in a sign of massive capitulation by traders and investors.

According to Google Trends, the waning demand has also pushed internet requests for the keyword “buy cryptocurrency” to their lowest since February 2020.

Interest in the keyword “buy cryptocurrency” since December 2018. Source: Google Trends

However, the 2022 “Payments Get Personal Report” from Accenture shows that retail interest in cryptocurrencies remains high despite 2022’s market crash. The reasons given by responders include long-term investments (28%), curiosity (22%), short-term speculation (21%) and others.

Meanwhile, separate research by personal finance portal DollarGeek dives into 2022’s most searched cryptocurrencies worldwide, presenting a rough outlook on what retail players may invest in heading into 2023.

Top 10 cryptocurrencies based on U.S. and global monthly searches. Source: DollarGeek

Bitcoin remains most-googled by far

According to DollarGeek, Bitcoin 

 has emerged as the most googled cryptocurrency in 2022, attracting 28.41 million monthly searches worldwide.

 

The interest remains relatively high as experts assess its quality compared to other crypto assets in the industry. For instance, venture capital investor Tim Draper thinks weaker coins will become relics amid the ongoing crypto winter, benefitting BTC.

Related: Tim Draper still positive on $250K Bitcoin price prediction in 2023

BTC’s price is down nearly 65% YTD, with some analysts predicting it could fall as low as $10,000. But internet searches over the past 12 months reveal that most people have searched for buying BTC, not selling it, suggesting that most people have never owned BTC. 

Interest in the keyword “buy Bitcoin” (red) and “sell Bitcoin” (blue) over the last 12 months. Source: Google Trends

Elon Musk’s favorite, Dogecoin, bags the second spot

Dogecoin 

 is the runner-up to BTC, attracting an average of 5.85 million monthly searches worldwide in 2022.

 

The memecoin was in the news primarily due to Elon Musk, who purchased Twitter and teased his followers with integrating DOGE for in-app payments. However, it also gained traction after getting listed on Robinhood, a United States-based commission-free trading platform.

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These events helped Dogecoin record temporary surges in internet searches, as shown in the Google Trends chart below. For instance, Musk's eventual Twitter buyout in late October coincided with Dogecoin internet trends rallying to a perfect 100 score.

Interest in the keyword "Dogecoin" over the last 12 months. Source: Google Trends

While the price of DOGE is down roughly 55% YTD, the internet search data suggests that its potential pool of buyers is higher than sellers, similar to BTC.

Interest in the keyword "buy Dogecoin" (blue) and "sell Dogecoin" (red) over the last 12 months. Source: Google Trends

Shiba Inu comes third but beats Dogecoin in US

Shiba Inu’s 

 monthly internet searches globally reached 4.43 million. The memecoin beat its biggest rival, DOGE, in the United States with 1.29 million monthly searches versus 729,000 for DOGE.

 

That is despite SHIB’s weaker price performance in 2022 compared to DOGE. SHIB is down roughly 75% YTD but is staying in the news due to its foray into the metaverse and the potential launch of Shibarium, SHIB’s Ethereum layer-2 blockchain.

Additionally, internet searches for “Shiba Inu” spiked due to Crypto.com. The crypto exchange held the largest SHIB position as of November 2022. The market feared Crypto.com would become insolvent, prompting it to sell its SHIB holdings.

Interest in the keyword “Shiba Inu” over the last 12 months. Source: Google Trends

However, Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek clarified that its mounting SHIB reserves are due to customer buying

Merge assists Ethereum in securing the fourth position

Ether 

  is the fourth most googled cryptocurrency worldwide, with 3.84 million monthly searches in 2022 despite its price dropping 67% YTD.

 

The second-largest blockchain by market cap stayed in the news throughout the year due to its switch to proof-of-stake (PoS) from proof-of-work (PoW), known as the Merge. Notably, interest in the keyword “Ethereum” and related terms like “Ethereum 2.0” and “Merge” peaked in September when the switch to the PoS consensus layer happened.

Interest in the keyword "Merge" over the last 12 months. Source: Google Trends

Ethereum’s internet searches may have also gained traction due to concerns that ETH could be considered a security post-Merge. Recently, the crypto platform Paxful removed support for ETH, citing similar reasons.

Cardano pump brings in the fifth-highest internet queries

Cardano 

 has attracted 1.47 million monthly internet searches on average in 2022, becoming the fifth-most googled cryptocurrency worldwide.

 

The Cardano trend picked up momentum specifically in January 2022 when ADA outperformed Bitcoin and Ether in price. Later, however, searches have been declining despite the Vasil hard fork in September failing to produce a spike in interest.

Interest in the keyword "Cardano" over the last 12 months. Source: Google Trends

Other honorable mentions of the most searched cryptocurrencies in 2022 include Avalanche 

, Litecoin 

, XRP 

, SafeMoon (SAFEMOON) and Nexus (NXS). 

 

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.