Retail investors have always played a major role in the cryptocurrency space, but it seems they are yet to arrive at the Bitcoin scene now; at least, this is what Google searches show for the largest cryptocurrency. Simultaneously, it seems they have a new favorite – Shiba Inu.

Retail Are Not Here for Bitcoin

Bitcoin and retail investors have frequently moved hand in hand. Back in 2017, when the cryptocurrency charted its then ATH of $20,000, smaller investors were primarily behind the rally.

Something similar transpired three and four years later as when BTC tapped its April ATH, the Google searches – typically a valid indicator of retail behavior – spiked once more.

However, the situation seems quite different now. As reported a few weeks ago, the number of queries on the world’s largest search engine containing either “bitcoin” or “buy bitcoin” was still relatively low. Yet, the asset went on to register a new all-time high of $67,000 shortly after. The searches barely increased despite the new record.

Bitcoin Worldwide Google Searches. Source: Google Trends

Similarly, the situation with another popular query “buy bitcoin” stays relatively low. The number of such Google searches picked up earlier this year amid the previous peaks but has barely increased before and after the most recent one at $67,000.

Buy Bitcoin Google Searches. Source: Google Trends

But They Are Here for Shiba Inu

Further Google Trends data shows that smaller investors are actually present in the cryptocurrency landscape but are not looking for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, or Binance Coin. They have even forgotten about the previous 2021 sensations – Dogecoin and SafeMoon.

Instead, they are now primarily searching for the self-proclaimed DOGE killer – Shiba Inu.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) Google Searches 12M Back. Source: Google Trends

As the graph above demonstrates, Shiba Inu’s projected weekly queries will smash the previous ATH, which came earlier this year. In fact, they will surpass it in the same dominant fashion as the asset’s price charted a new record earlier this week – roughly double up.

This coincided with the recent boom of Shiba Inu. Launched as a meme coin last year, it has seen impressive growth in terms of adoption from retail, including the massive SHIBArmy – currently represented by hundreds of thousands of fans.

The cryptocurrency is arguably the best performer since the start of the year, with a mind-blowing ROI of more than 100,000,000% (you got that right, one hundred million percent).

The chances of such an impressive surge to slip up the minds of retail investors, many of whom aim for quick profits, are pretty slim.

Nevertheless, the cryptocurrency community has seen many similar trends come and go, many of which resulted in mass pain for those who were late to the party. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the same faith could reach Shiba Inu as well.

However, future investors should focus on doing proper research to look for fundamental reasons why they want to buy a particular asset instead of going after what’s currently hot.