Google searches for “Bitcoin to zero” have skyrocketed to their highest post-FTX panic ranges in November 2022, based on Google Developments knowledge from the previous 5 years.
This surge coincides with Bitcoin’s most up-to-date drawdown from an all-time excessive of round $126,000 on October 6, 2025 to round $66,500 as of writing on Thursday, leaving the asset almost 50% under its peak, based on Coingecko knowledge.
On the identical time, Bitcoin’s Worry and Greed Index has fallen to excessive concern round 9, a stage beforehand seen through the 2022 Terra ecosystem collapse and FTX fallout.
In line with Google Developments, the final time world curiosity within the phrase “Bitcoin goes to zero” reached comparable ranges was in early November 2022, when FTX froze withdrawals, and Bitcoin ($BTC) plummeted to about $15,000.
Google searches for “Bitcoin goes to zero.” sauce: Google Developments
Bitcoin considerations right this moment are totally different than in 2022
Crypto intelligence platform Notion analyzed narrative intelligence throughout over 650 crypto media sources and shared its findings with Cointelegraph.
Founder Fernando Nikolic stated that whereas the fears of 2022 had been attributable to inside occasions such because the cascading failures of centralized monetary establishments and the trade’s largest exchanges, right this moment’s fears are “pushed by macro fears and amplified by a single bearish voice.”
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Nikolic stated Bloomberg’s Mike McGlone, who has been essentially the most vocal proponent of the narrative that “Bitcoin may go to zero (or near zero)” and is “this cycle’s one-man content material machine” who pushed the worth of Bitcoin to $10,000 on February 3, has continued to name for a fall in Bitcoin during the last month, saying the market is headed for a 2008-style crash.
He advised Cointelegraph that McGlone’s value has been repeatedly amplified by crypto media websites and has been “mainly the go-to bear marketplace for the previous three weeks.” “This media saturation is probably going immediately contributing to the proliferation of Google searches,” he stated.
Retailer nervousness lags specialty media sentiment
Nikolic stated the true counterargument to “nobody is synthesizing” is that whereas searches for “bitcoin to zero” are surging, institutional buyers are accumulating increasingly bitcoin. $BTCfactors to the truth that sovereign wealth funds equivalent to Abu Dhabi are growing their holdings in Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, and enormous corporations like Technique proceed so as to add to their holdings. $BTC.
Notion knowledge reveals that media sentiment bottomed out on Feb. 5, however has rebounded up to now two weeks, with Google searches for “Bitcoin going to zero” now peaking in mid-February, he stated.
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He stated retailer nervousness lags skilled media sentiment by about 10 to 14 days. “By the point the general public is most fearful, the skilled narrative has already begun to stabilize. The retail narrative and organizational habits are transferring in the wrong way.”
Macro concern and quantum nervousness
The surge in searches for “Bitcoin going to zero” can be occurring towards a backdrop of record-breaking macro nervousness.
The Economist Intelligence Unit’s World Uncertainty Index, which counts mentions of “uncertainty” in nation experiences, is on the highest stage within the Federal Reserve Financial institution of St. Louis (FRED) time sequence, above its peaks across the 2008 world monetary disaster and the 2020 coronavirus shock.
World Uncertainty Index. sauce: fred
Analysis supporting the index discovered that rising world uncertainty tends to precede weaker manufacturing and slower development, with corporations slowing funding and hiring.
Quantum concern has additionally been a persistent backdrop since October 2025, Nikolic stated, however he stated quantum concern is just not impartial and has been spiking together with falling costs.
In line with Google Developments, searches for “Bitcoin Quantum” peaked in November 2025 and have steadily declined since then.
“That is an amplification of pre-existing bearish sentiment and isn’t a standalone issue. The search pattern for ‘Bitcoin going to zero’ is probably going a mix of value crash concern + quantum existential concern + McGlone-style macro disaster, all converging in the identical field.”
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