Data shows mainstream interest in Bitcoin is surging

We explore all the ways crypto has entered the mainstream and what does this mean for the industry.

Ever since the first Bitcoin block was mined in January 2009, the goal of the crypto industry was to challenge traditional finance.

Increased pressure from financial regulators also didn't help-while some countries such as China, Taiwan, Pakistan, and Iran have outright banned crypto trading, others have imposed banking bans and made it impossible for crypto companies to effectively operate.

Omar Bham, a crypto news curator, recently tweeted a chart showing that interest in Bitcoin has surged on Google Search Trends.

The Bitcoin virus continues to spread. 732,982 Bitcoin addresses now own more than 1 BTC. pic.

According to his data, there are currently 733,000 Bitcoin addresses that hold 1 or more BTC. While this is a slight increase since last year, comparing the number with any previous year shows an enormous change.

After retailers such as Steam and Twitch have reversed their decisions to accept crypto payments, exposing such a large number of globally known merchants is regarded as a major win for crypto acceptance.

Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, pointed out that crypto is slowly going from niche to mainstream.

"In crypto, the most mainstream thing you can think of is swiping your credit card at Starbucks. That will probably be the last area that's disrupted by crypto."

Having the interest in the crypto market frequently go up and down isn't a new thing-mentions of Bitcoin on Twitter peaked at the beginning of December 2017 but fell to a historic low just a month later.