This week, a bitcoin video went viral on TikTok for the first time. It follows mentions of BTC by several high-profile investors, individuals, and companies.

The video shared by crypto entrepreneur Thomas Schulz showed a room full of mining equipment with the caption, “this is why GPU prices went up.”

First viral Bitcoin TikTok 👏 pic.twitter.com/JtFCmYF7ST — Tom (@ThomasSchuIz) December 15, 2019

Growing popularity of bitcoin and crypto

Bitcoin is still considered to be in a short-term bear trend following its drop from $13,900 to sub-$7,000.

Media mentions of the dominant cryptocurrency have dropped, and the number of deals happening in the crypto industry has noticeably decreased.

But, as bitcoin approaches its 12th birthday and the third block-reward halving in its history, the mainstream awareness of cryptocurrencies in general has started to increase.

On Dec. 15, for instance, the popular product discovery platform Product Hunt tweeted “bitcoin.”

Bill Pulte, whose grandfather started Pulte Group, stated that cryptocurrency can help the world’s poorest by providing a decentralized network to process transactions.

Emphasizing that he wants to promote the adoption of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, Pulte said:

Cryptocurrency can help the world’s poorest…especially those who are ‘unbanked’… as a philanthropist, I therefore want to promote adoption. Leave comment why you need Bitcoin and I’ll pick one person to send some satoshis to. Yes this is real.

Mentions of bitcoin on platforms like TikTok and by high-profile individuals such as Pulte can contribute to the overall increase in the mainstream awareness of cryptocurrencies.

It is crucial for bitcoin to obtain the attention of the mainstream first before seeing widespread adoption, despite the rapidly improving infrastructure of the crypto market.

Infrastructure is necessary to supplement the growth of an emerging asset class, but it requires many people to use it to establish a network effect and increase its practicality.

What’s next?

It has been just over 11 years since bitcoin was introduced, and the mainstream media covers it as a well-established asset; there is significant interest surrounding it on various social media platforms.

As companies continue to build on top of the existing infrastructure in the market and regulators provide more clarity regarding various areas of the cryptocurrency sector, mainstream awareness is expected to rise even further.

Bitcoin mining, as an example, has been an industry that was at risk of being eliminated by the government of China up until late 2019. Last month, China lifted restrictions on mining and recognized it as a proper industry.