“24 days ago = 300,000 subscribers. Today = 329,700 subscribers.”
So boasted a post this week on the largest Reddit forum about bitcoin, touting the group’s substantial growth recently.
As the price of bitcoin
BTCUSD, +0.36%
and other cryptocurrencies has skyrocketed this year, there has been an explosion of crypto-related activity on Reddit. On average, interactions on the major crypto subreddits are up 930% this year, according to a MarketWatch analysis of data from CrowdTangle.
On the largest bitcoin forum, subscribers are up 66% in 2017 to more than 331,000, and the total number of interactions in August (defined as comments and upvotes) was up 315% from January. That closely parallels the rise in the price of bitcoin, which is up about 285% year-to-date.
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August was particularly dramatic for the forum — perhaps no surprise given the drama-filled news coming out of the crypto world over the past two months. The main bitcoin forum’s moderators confirmed that they’ve seen an average rate of 1,300 new users per day recently, and that they logged a big bump in page views in August — up 59% from the previous month (compared with a 16% monthly increase from June to July).
According to the group’s moderators, the day of the month with the highest traffic was Aug. 1, the day of BIP148 activation, which essentially marked a “split” in the cryptocurrency and the launch of Bitcoin Cash. That day saw more than 1.5 million views, more than twice the group’s average, and the most views since the collapse of Mt. Gox on Feb. 25, 2014.
Of course, if you take a look at some of the other crypto hot spots on Reddit, then the growth on the bitcoin forum seems tame.
The group “CryptoCurrency” has nearly quadrupled its subscriber count to get to its current 129,386. It has seen an astounding 3,017% increase in interactions in 2017. August was a big month for that group too — interactions were up 57% from July.
“Ethtrader” has seen an 880% growth in subscribers from January through August. It has also seen interactions go up by 1,000% this year. The group going by “Ethereum” has seen a 405% growth in subscribers and 72% bump in interactions in 2017. Meanwhile, the price of ethereum is up 3,352% year-to-date. August was a quiet month on those forums, however.
Creeping up on the trends list is litecoin. The interactions rate on the litecoin subreddit is up 1,652% year-to-date. The price of litecoin is up 1,075% in 2017.
The takeoff in crypto chatter on “the internet’s homepage” probably just adds fuel to the fire for the bears who see a bubble waiting to pop. But for the bitcoin faithful, it perhaps serves as a sign that crypto is increasingly moving into the mainstream.
Reddit for years has been a popular online destination for investors and traders looking to pick up tips, tout gains and trash-talk. We’ve chronicled before how Reddit chatter has fed traders’ appetites for volatile assets, and, in some ways, this may simply be the 2017 variation on that theme.
Notably, only two of the major investing-related subreddits have seen activity go down over the course of this year. Interactions on the group called “stockmarket” are down 2%, and interactions on the infamous “wallstreetbets” are down 12%.
Here’s the raw data chronicling the growth of crypto on Reddit this year, compiled via CrowdTangle. The table includes the notable subreddits related to cryptocurrencies or investing that have at least 50,000 subscribers, as of Thursday:
— Terrence Horan contributed to this article.