Social media chatter this month favored precious metals over crypto most days, according to Sanbase data from Santiment. Gold dominated discussions between Jan. 8 and Jan. 18 after fresh highs, while silver led early in the month and surged again after setting records.
Interest briefly swung back to crypto between Jan. 19 and Jan. 22 as traders tried to buy dips. “Cryptocurrency traders are well known for jumping between different sectors within digital assets based on the latest & greatest hype cycles, eg, memecoins vs AI vs blue chips, etc,” Santiment analysts stated in their post.
Silver hit a new all-time high just above $117 on Tuesday, according to TradingView. Santiment warned retail FOMO may signal a market top and noted that “silver set records by surging above $117.70 and then falling back down below $102.70 just two hours later after retail hype peaked,” with the metal trading around $113 on Wednesday (Ed. note: Santiment links retail hype to tops).
Search interest also shifted over the past seven days, per Google Trends, which showed “crypto” peaked at 100 on Jan. 21 and scored 82 on Wednesday. Bitcoin hit 100 on Monday and scored 86 on Wednesday, while silver peaked at 100 on Jan. 22 and was 68 on Wednesday.

