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Canadians are obsessed with cannabis and cryptocurrency

“The Price of Bitcoin” and “Marijuana Stock” are the top two most-searched economic terms of 2017

Canadians’ curiousity for pot and bitcoin knows no bounds.

According to Google’s 2017 Year In Search list, the two most-Googled economic terms in Canada this year were “The Price of Bitcoin” and “Marijuana Stock”, reflecting the population’s growing interest in two burgeoning markets — cryptocurrency and cannabis.

Bitcoin has been on an epic, unprecedented rise in the past one year, soaring more than 2000 percent in value since January, when it was at a mere USD$775. As of Wednesday morning, one bitcoin was worth almost USD$17,300.

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According to Google, the top trending bitcoin-related searches in Canada were "How do I buy bitcoin in Canada?", "How do I mine bitcoin?" and "How do you invest in bitcoin?".

Bitcoin's integration into the mainstream investing world could potentially be one of the reasons why its price was "googled' so often. In September, regulators in British Columbia approved the first registered bitcoin fund manager. Just last week, a Chicago-based derivatives exchange launched bitcoin futures, marking the first time investors could get exposure to the bitcoin market through a large, regulated exchange.

Interest in investing in the cannabis space was also reflected heavily in what Canadians searched for on Google. The number of publicly-listed cannabis companies has been on the rise in Canada — in fact, the Canadian Securities Exchange is sometimes referred to in broker circles as the "Cannabis Stock Exchange", simply because of the number of cannabis companies listed on it.

It is estimated that post-legalization the Canadian marijuana market could be worth almost $23 billion.

Other popular economic terms that were searched for — "Black Friday", "Canadian Dollar to US Dollar", and strangely enough "Credit Karma", the American personal finance company that offers free credit scores.

Last year's most-searched economic terms were vastly different — "Alberta economy" topped the list in 2016, followed by "Command economy", and of course, "Donald Trump".