Speculator Attention and Bitcoin Return

Speculator level of interest (attention) is plausibly key to bitcoin price behavior. Does the level of online searches for “bitcoin” as a proxy for attention usefully predict bitcoin return? To investigate, we examine interactions between monthly worldwide search intensity for “bitcoin” as measured by Google Trends to represent speculator attention and monthly bitcoin returns. Using monthly Google Trends data starting September 2014 (to coincide with inception of source price tracking) as retrieved on 9/6/2021 and end-of-month bitcoin prices during September 2014 through August 2021, we find that: (more…)