Crypto search trends and app rankings show tepid engagement despite recent surge

Despite the strong market performance and notable memecoin gains, retail interest appears conspicuously absent from the current rally. Google search volume for "memecoin" sits at just 14 on the relative scale, a stark contrast to January's peak of 100 and only marginally lower than the 19 recorded in the previous month.

This muted search activity comes even as top memecoins have surged approximately 50% according to the  GMCI memecoin index  in the last month, suggesting that recent price appreciation hasn't translated into broader public curiosity or participation.

The absence of retail engagement extends beyond memecoin-specific searches, with other key terms like "bitcoin," "ethereum," "coinbase," and "solana" remaining relatively flat despite market gains. App store rankings corroborate this trend, with Coinbase and Robinhood, longtime barometers of retail crypto involvement, hovering around 300th place in the U.S. Apple App Store rankings rather than climbing toward the top charts typically seen during retail surges. During previous cycles, these platforms would often rank among the top downloaded apps as new users flocked to capitalize on market momentum.

The current market dynamics may suggest this rally has been primarily driven by crypto-native investors and institutional participants rather than the retail wave that characterized previous runs. This composition could present an interesting dynamic moving forward, as sustained retail engagement has historically been a key component of major market cycles in crypto. The question remains if and when retail interest will catch up to current price levels, or if this cycle will continue to be led by crypto natives and institutions.

This is an excerpt from  The Block's Data & Insights newsletter . Dig into the numbers making up the industry's most thought-provoking trends.