Mainstream Curiosity Index (Wikipedia)
Bitcoin + Ethereum Wikipedia pageviews daily over 10 years — the cleanest mainstream curiosity indication available (CC-BY-SA, no bots, no marketing).
What is it?
Wikipedia pageviews are an unobstructed proxy of public curiosity — when somebody googles 'what is Bitcoin', they often land on Wikipedia. This chart plots daily pageviews on Bitcoin and Ethereum English articles since 2015 (Wikimedia API standard window). Unlike search interest which is normalized 0-100, pageviews are absolute counts and capture both intensity AND scale of curiosity. Educated mainstream tends to read Wikipedia before opening a Binance account — making this a leading indicator on onboarding waves.
How to read
Two lines : Bitcoin (orange) and Ethereum (blue). Y-axis = daily pageviews log scale. Bitcoin dominates in absolute terms but Ethereum-to-Bitcoin ratio rises during altcoin seasons. Daily pageviews > 50K on Bitcoin coincide with mainstream news coverage waves. Spikes typically precede or accompany cycle phases — not lead by months but confirm intensity of mainstream attention.
Key zones
Floor zone (~3-5K pageviews/day) : bear market dormancy. Mid zone (~6-12K) : healthy interest, mid-cycle. High zone (~12-20K) : mainstream wave, often coincides with media cycle. Spike zone (~20-30K+) : historical extreme — late-2017 ICO mania, 2021 retail wave, January 2024 ETF launch. Sustained pageviews > 12K for several weeks typically mark late-cycle phases.
What to observe
Bitcoin pageviews leading Ethereum on bullish trend reversal = institutional money returning first. Ethereum surpassing Bitcoin in pageview ratio = altseason intensifying. Sudden spike on ETH alone = ecosystem narrative (merge, EIP-1559, etc.). Sudden spike on BTC alone = macro / regulatory event (ETF, halving, sovereign adoption).
Historical context
Wikipedia daily pageview data starts mid-2015. Bitcoin EN article pageviews historically peaked around the December 2017 top, then again during the 2021 dual-peak cycle, and re-accelerated around the January 2024 ETF approval. Ethereum EN follows a similar pattern at roughly half the magnitude. Both articles return to floor levels during prolonged bear phases.
Expert notes
Wikipedia pageviews are noisier than Google Trends but capture deeper engagement (people scroll, read, click external links). The Wikimedia API is free, gives daily granularity, and is CC0 / public domain on the data. Power users can extend this chart with Lightning Network, Bitcoin ETF, DeFi articles for finer-grained curiosity indicates.
Common mistakes to avoid
Spike day = top of cycle ❌. The May 2021 BTC pageview peak occurred 2 weeks AFTER the local price top. Wikipedia is confirmation, not precognition. Also, low pageviews ≠ bear market end — Wikipedia dormancy can persist 6-12 months into a recovery before mainstream returns.
Programmatic access
REST API
curl -sS \
'https://api.trinityinsights.io/api/v1/narrative-intelligence/narrative-wiki-mainstream-curiosity/history?days=90' \
-H 'X-API-Key: $TRINITY_API_KEY'MCP server
{
"tool": "get_chart_value",
"metric_id": "narrative-wiki-mainstream-curiosity",
"timeframe": "1y"
}Required tier: free. See the pricing grid for the tier list and the MCP documentation for multi-client configuration.
Related metrics
Institutional disclaimer
Trinity Insights is an educational and analytical tool. The metric above does not constitute investment advice. Trinity Insights is not a Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) registered under MiCA Regulation (EU) 2023/1114. See the full disclaimer.