The crypto hype bubble that rocketed Bitcoin and Ethereum into the public eye and made them household names when they reached all-time highs was also accompanied by a surge in search interest of people who were scrambling to find out what the fuss was all about. However, the recent crypto surge on the markets did not come with a change in Google search volume - in fact, the volume has been decreasing.The latest rally has put a lot of cryptocurrencies up by 250% from what they were worth in less than a month. Even Bitcoin surged and the Bitcoin price news now show that BTC is close to $9,000. However, despite the rally and the fact that this downtrend may be over, the rise in prices is not being followed by a rise in Google search volume.Trading volumes also have not seen any uptick which caused a lot of top crypto analysts to wonder what are the actual benefits of this rally. If you have been following our latest cryptocurrencies news for the last few years, you probably know the FOMO effect which swept the mainstream public when Bitcoin rose to $20,000.The more people heard about BTC, the more they bought it which lead to surges everywhere. The Google Search volume for the Bitcoin price also spiked, reaching all-time highs in late 2017.Now, this is not the case. The prices are going up but the search volume is going down. This was also shared on Twitter by an analyst named Haejin who illustrated the unchanged behaviour:https://twitter.com/Haejin_Crypto/status/1217288329382842369So, as the prices are skyrocketing once again, the crypto community is not that convinced that we are beginning to see the start of a larger trend reversal. The Google Search volume has not only started to trend upward - it is actually trending down now and suggesting that even fewer people are interested in Bitcoin (BTC) now.The same attention who called attention to the Google Search volume is also very leery about the entire leary. Haejin claims that lesser rallies over the last few months experienced more volume - suggesting that this is not the crypto reversal we have all been waiting for.https://twitter.com/Haejin_Crypto/status/1217937419158376457

The Bitcoin derivatives trading now looks set to reach record levels this month as the volume spiked and open interest hovered near the all-time highs. The CME BTC futures are seeing increased interest lately and data from CME Group shows that as of January 16, the open interest alone totalled 5,328 contracts which is 26,640 BTC or $237 million.This figure is higher than any month before and any close that CME has seen since it debuted in December 2017, with July 2019 currently in the lead with 5,252 contracts. However, the CME BTC futures open interest did surpass the current levels earlier in January when it reached around 5,400 contracts as the data from the US regulator the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) showed on January 7.As we previously reported in the Bitcoin news, the CME BTC futures are seeing an increased attention from both investors and commentators as many new participants are fuelling a potential Bitcoin price rise in 2020.While all of this is good, another fact which is good is BTC/USD accelerating towards $9,000 this week and triggering the market for another spike. According to unofficial data from the analyst Skew Markets, the worldwide volume has hit $25 billion which is the most since late October.Another analyst named Michael van de Poppe talked about the increased CME BTC futures interest and said:

“I think that's a strong signal indicating that we're reversing now and probably have bottomed out.”

As you may know if you read our cryptonews, CME launched a new product in the form of options on Bitcoin futures earlier this year and the release came days after the competitor FTX did likewise.The company said that it considered the options a "success" as the volumes reached 275 BTC by day two. The long-term demand from institutional investors has long been a preoccupation for crypto businesses. In the 2019 retrospective this week, the venture capital giant Grayscale showed that the annual investment totalled over $1 billion.Besides all of this, many executives and big players are certain that now it is clear that the industry was seeing institutional adoption. Meanwhile, the market is headed in a good direction too and may visit new highs above $250 billion (total) soon.

The price of Bitcoin hit $9,000 on January 17 as the technical metrics continued to break both local and all-time records. Even though the price later on corrected to the current price of $8,910, we can see that BTC is already up by 25% this year and the signal that it rose to $9,000.At press time, the Bitcoin price news show that a slight retracement had sent the pair slightly lower to $8,900 with its 24-hour returns being still at 3% and its weekly performance remaining stronger at almost 16%. Bitcoin is in a good momentum and the holders are now sitting on monthly gains which are totalling almost 35%.The attention right now is turning to shorter time frames. According to the analyst filbfilb, BTC is already up by a lot this year but despite its bullish overall movements, the cryptocurrency's next close would be crucial in determining the short-term trajectory.Specifically, if the BTC/USD pair were to close below the bullish candle which took it to the current highs, the chance of a bearish reversal would be on the table. The price under such circumstances would then initiate a pattern may keep the pair lower.

“When price pierces above a key swing high but then closes back below that swing high, we have a potential bearish SFP,” the analyst said in a private comment given to one media outlet.

In addition to this and the fact that BTC is already up by 25% in 2020, the 200-day moving average is also hovering around the low $9,000 region. Thus, it will likely present a critical barrier for the bulls if a run-up to $10,000 is to occur.Regardless of this, the cryptonews today show that Bitcoin managed to drag the entire market upwards. Some altcoins are even performing better than BTC now and the total crypto market cap is now at $244 billion.For instance, we can see that Ethereum (ETH) recently hit the $170 mark in a 6% increase, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is now at $343 with a 8% surge and EOS (EOS) is very close to $4 with a 9% rise overnight.The biggest gainer on the day is Ethereum Classic (ETC) which managed to add 30% to its price and is now at $9.80. Analysts hope that the $10 mark will be crossed today as well.

A well-known blockchain analysis company, Chainalysis reports in its latest publication has publicized concerns about the laundering trends of Bitcoin for 2019 as we are reading in our bitcoin news today.Illegal Bitcoin with the worth of $2.8 billion was traced by the company, deposited to cryptocurrency exchanges all around, in the duration of 2019. Binance and Huobi each got around one-quarter of the total sum, while various other exchanges received the rest as per the blog post.Chainalysis reports that the exchanges should have caught the illegal Bitcoin through KYC instruments, that give the ability to recognize illegally taken Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that have been stained by criminal links. It could be surprising that important and skillful crypto exchanges fail to stop illegal activity, the company claims.Chainalysis says that besides the illegal Bitcoin that was sent to 300,000 exchange accounts, the bigger part of the aforementioned sum was concentrated in a few huge accounts. This suggests that criminals getting their Bitcoin through third parties, that in turn deposit the Bitcoin on an exchange. Chainalysis thinks that OTC brokers are the said third parties. These brokers enable trade between two parties, buyers and sellers, providing a significant source of market liquidity.The thing is that OTC brokers also relaxed KYC standards, which means that they could work with illegal Bitcoin, on accident or deliberately. Chainalysis is not naming the firms it suspects, however it had identified 100 “rouge” OTC brokers, that could be laundering Bitcoin.32 of those OTC brokers are between the 810 accounts that received the most stained Bitcoin. 70 of those have their accounts on Huobi. And while none of those brokers have accounts on Binance, it could be the case that that exchange company has its own rotten apples.The rouge 100, are very highly active. Chainalysis claims that the OTC brokers in question could be responsible for about 1% of Bitcoin trading activity every 30 days. It says that they are hugely intertwined in frauds, like the PlusToken sell-off of 2019. Chainalysis also claims that crypto exchanges must take strong anti-illegal funds stance with the hard inspection of OTC desks, as hard as they inspect criminals. With the blocking of the bigger part of illegal Bitcoin, cryptocurrency exchange companies will end any incentive for criminals to utilize Bitcoin.