2017 will go down equally the biggest year in Bitcoin's history - with meteoric highs paving the way for the preeminent cryptocurrency bursting into mainstream consciousness.

Dec will forever be remembered for Bitcoin's massive cost correction afterward hitting the $20,000 milestone, but a lot happened in the lead upward to the climactic terminate of the year.

Rewind to Jan 2022. Bitcoin had just broken through the $ane,000 bulwark and the talk among crypto enthusiasts was that the virtual currency was set for a bullish yr. It's fair to say that no one anticipated an eventual 2,000 percent growth earlier the market correction, but the statistics will tell a different story.

Google stats

A quick glance at Google Trend'southward analytic graph shows that involvement in Bitcoin had a small peak in May, while it actually started to garner involvement worldwide effectually the fourth dimension that SegWit2x was postponed and the Bitcoin balderdash run began.

It was, however, the second most searched news term globally in 2022, while information technology came up third in the frequently hilarious 'how to' search category.

Top Google Trends 2022

Interestingly enough, the countries where Bitcoin was most frequently searched were not massive kickoff world economies, but growing ones. South Africa topped the list, followed past Slovenia, Nigeria, Ghana and so Australia.

Occupying top spots in Google'due south search trends is no hateful feat. It tells united states of america that people were searching difficult for data on Bitcoin, whether it was for the latest cost updates or how to setup a Bitcoin wallet.

Bitcoin also occupied the number one spot for the virtually searched term on Investopedia - the world's go-to encyclopedia for fiscal and economic terms and data.

Miners please - cards in demand

Equally interest in Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies grew, the average PC gamer and overclocking enthusiast saw their take a chance to get in on the action past using their hardware to back up the world'south mining operations.

Mining enthusiasts wasted no fourth dimension getting in on the action which quickly led to a massive surge in demand for graphics cards - which are needed to solve the cryptographic puzzles that are used to validate transactions on cryptocurrency Blockchains.

Just half-way through 2022, graphics card manufacturers AMD struggled to keep up with the demand for cards.

Rivals Nvidia boasted superior stock prices this year and the adoption of Blockchain technologies by the likes of Uber and Airbnb led analysts to predict even greater growth as both chip manufacturers hold the key - hardware.

Nvidia's stock price even mimicked Bitcoin cost for the better part of the twelvemonth - although the company was uncertain of its future in the market amid regulatory changes in Communist china, which accounts for a big contingent of the earth'south mining operations. Proposals were made to manufacture mining specific fries to protect the company from constantly changing consumer needs.

Bitcoin gets celebrity blessing

Along with its newfound notoriety, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies also got a celebrity postage stamp of approval in 2022.

Battle superstar Floyd Mayweather grabbed headlines on numerous occasions, equally he stepped in to promote a number of ICOs using the Ethereum Blockchain.

Football game giant Leo Messi also joined the fray in an endorsement deal with Sirin Labs, which creates hardware to support Blockchain engineering.

The listing literally goes on and there are some surprising names here. Height of the listing is rapper Snoop Dogg, alongside actors Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashton Kutcher.

Luxury items for sale

As Bitcoin boomed, more people looked to take reward of the appreciation in value which saw some luxury items, from mansions to custom cars, go on sale - non in dollars, but in Bitcoin.

For the right price, people could get their easily on a golden Rolls Royce, a Caribbean island, an upmarket flat in England's famous Notting Hill, or a mansion in Miami.

Trying to go on upward

The explosion of interest in Bitcoin was a benefaction to the market place just it too proved to be a massive stress exam for exchanges, their servers, infrastructure and payment systems.

From Nov onwards, major exchanges like Coinbase, Gemini, Bitfinex and others had to upgrade their systems to run into the massive influx of new users trying to open up wallets on their exchanges.

This caused a major headache for many users due to the ho-hum transaction speed. However, without the massive increment in book, many of these exchanges may not take upgraded their systems - which is crucial in the evolution of more than efficient exchanges.

Media spotlight

The ever-growing interest in Bitcoin inevitably led to the subject being covered more extensively by mainstream news outlets. The likes of CBNC, Fortune, Bloomberg, CNN and Trick to name but a few ramped up coverage on the subject.

Every other day, these media giants hosted financial analysts, cryptocurrency experts, Blockchain engineers, basically anyone with a wealth of knowledge on the subject to help inform opinion.

As mentioned above, Bitcoin was the second-most searched news term on Google - feeding traffic to these websites and their various interviews.

Financial experts like billionaire hedge fund manager Mike Novogratz and renowned stock analyst Ronnie Moas led the manner in terms of toll predictions. Meanwhile, traditional financial institutions similar JP Morgan, Bank of French republic, Coutts Bank were staunchly opposed to cryptocurrency adoption - as was reported past numerous mainstream news outlets.

If 2022 was anything to get by, we are in for a bumper new year's day. The cryptocurrency marketplace valuation is leap to be top of the list, but abiding advances in Blockchain tech and new offerings should see crypto garner more than media interest in 2022.