Bitcoin (BTC) investors and mainstream consumers are paying more attention to the cryptocurrency’s block reward halving in May 2020.

According to data from Google Trends on Dec. 17, worldwide searches for “Bitcoin halving” have significantly increased in the course of 2019, over a year before the halving occurs.

BTC halving can provide bullish narrative

Within the context of the past five years, interest is palpably higher, with only a brief period around the previous halving in 2016 seeing higher global search volumes.

By contrast, results for “Bitcoin” have declined in recent months, echoing the lack of interest associated with the cryptocurrency’s price decline.

Worldwide Google search data for “Bitcoin halving” since 2014. Source: Google Trends

As Cointelelrgaph reported, both search terms saw increased activity in late November, when Bitcoin markets entered a brief period of growth.

Nonetheless, the heightened profile of the halving in particular did not go unnoticed among analysts. Commenting on the data, Adamant Capital co-founder Tuur Demeester noted that many still perceive the halving as a Bitcoin price catalyst.

“It's very clear that retail interest in BTC is nonexistent and investor sentiment is pretty bad right now. Question is whether the halvening could provide a bullish narrative - the Google trends data imo suggests it could,” he wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.

All eyes on miners

The halving refers to the number of “new” Bitcoins claimed by miners for each block of transactions decreasing by 50%.

In 2020, the reward will go from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC, increasing competition which some say has already affected miner behavior in advance.

In recent weeks, BTC/USD has conformed to the hypothesis that miners would defend a certain price floor which corresponds to their production cost of around $6,500.