Viewership of cryptocurrency-related content on YouTube has declined to its lowest level since January 2021, marking a significant retreat in retail engagement across social media platforms. The sharp drop occurred over the past three months, reversing a previous steady recovery in online crypto attention.
Benjamin Cowen, founder of ITC Crypto, shared a 30-day moving average of views across various crypto YouTube channels on Sunday, highlighting the broad decline. "So it's not just X and an algorithm change," Cowen stated, referring to similar engagement falls on the microblogging platform X. Crypto commentator Tom Crown confirmed the trend, noting interest has "collapsed across all platforms, and has had a noticeable local decline since just October." Crown added that crypto social engagement has been in a 'bear market' since 2021, never approaching previous highs.
Bitcoin investor "Polaris XBT" characterized the data as "bear market levels of social interest," reinforcing the premise that institutional players, rather than retail traders, have been driving recent market cycles. YouTube content creator Jesus Martinez echoed the sentiment, stating that despite growing his channel since early 2022, "nothing ever came close to the few videos I created in the peak of 2021."
TikTok creator "Cloud9 Markets" suggested retail fatigue stems from scams and pump-and-dump schemes associated with speculative altcoins. "Retail is tired of getting rekt," they added. Marc Shawn Brown, Cointelegraph's head of social media, observed that many investors have likely pivoted to precious metals and macro assets. "People want returns, not stories of when returns could come," Brown said, noting that 2025 delivered a -7% return for BTC while palladium, rhodium, cobalt, silver, and gold all outperformed.
Despite the viewership decline, on-chain analytics platform Santiment reported on Friday that social sentiment towards Bitcoin (BTC) "is clearly getting more and more positive," with signs the decline may be stabilizing. The firm added that the $90,000 price level will be crucial for maintaining retail positivity. Meanwhile, sentiment towards Ethereum (ETH) "appears to be scattered, and not showing any consistent trends as of now."
Long-term optimism persists among industry figures. Venture capitalist Tim Draper reiterated this week that 2026 would be a breakout year, maintaining his $250,000 Bitcoin price target. Bitwise head of research Ryan Rasmussen argued Bitcoin will break its traditional four-year cycle in 2026, while Abra CEO Bill Barhydt believes easing monetary policy could inject fresh liquidity into global markets, reviving risk appetite.
