The CEO of Investopedia breaks down 2017's top search terms — you can probably guess what was No.1

Investopedia

• Investopedia, an online glossary of financial terms and concepts, gets over 30 million monthly visitors
• We spoke to CEO David Siegel about bitcoin, blockchain, and how high cryptocurrencies can go. 

Investopedia, the online glossary of terms you were probably too embarrassed to admit you didn’t actually know, has ten times the amount of retirement content as it does about bitcoin.

However, more visitors to the eighteen-year-old site were reading about bitcoin than retirement in 2017 — a number that's doubling every single month, CEO David Siegel told Business Insider. The numbers were so astonishing that the site had to hire a full time editor for the space.

"We launched the term bitcoin in August 2011 — that was really early," Siegel told Business Insider in an interview. "We launched the term blockchain in June 2014, so we were also early into blockchain too, but we were ridiculously early to bitcoin."

That preparedness has helped the site, which was purchased by InterActive Corp. for $80 million in 2013, to rank first — or close to first — for most searches containing bitcoin.

Not surprisingly, blockchain and ICOs aren’t far behind bitcoin on the list. Siegel, who worked at DoubleClick during the heyday of the 90’s dotcom bubble, is much more bullish on the former rather than the later.

"People talk about bitcoin, and often they talk about crypto, but really the amazing thing is blockchain,” he said. "Blockchain is the infrastructure that makes everything happen."

Cyptocurrencies are a much different story.

“So many new terms are coming up regarding this, like potcoin. There's even a new coin out there called the shitcoin” Siegel said. “I don't know how much more these cryptocurrencies are going to grow, but they will continue to grow with accelerated growth for some period of time — and then there's going to be a massive crash. Now that crash could still end up 200%-300% up from where it was a couple years ago, which is still incredible, but it's dangerous for people who are coming right into it, because they will not be up the same amount.

"In my mind, it's not question of if, it's just a question of when that will happen."

Here’s the full list of Investopedia’s top terms on its site in 2017, with commentary from Siegel:

10. Millennials

"With baby boomers and Gen Xers in retirement or rapidly approaching it, millennials are about to witness the largest wealth transfer in history, bringing major changes to traditional investing tactics and retirement planning.

9. Behavioral Economics

"With thanks to Professor Richard Thaler, a key proponent of behavioral economics, this term jumped back into the spotlight when Thaler won the 2017 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his development of the nudge theory.

8. Impact Investing

"A subset of socially responsible investing, impact investing aims to generate not only financial gain but also social and environmental benefits. As millennials continue to increase their wealth and start investing, they are increasingly interested in aligning their money with their values. This has catalyzed investment management firms to build new funds and products to cater to their new customers’ needs.

7. Artificial Intelligence

"One of the buzziest words in 2017, firms across all industries are talking about adopting machine learning and artificial intelligence. While 2017 was the year of building AI technology, 2018 will be the year the industry sees it in application.

6. MiFID II

"This is the newest European regulation that financial firms must comply with by January 3, 2018. Financial services firms are spending tens of millions of dollars to adapt to these new regulations, which are designed to make investing safer and more transparent.

5. Trumpcare

"President Trump made repealing Obamacare one of his top priorities as he attempted to pass his Trumpcare bill three times. While Obamacare still lives to fight another day, the administration is attempting to roll back key parts of the Affordable Healthcare Act through the latest tax reform plan and other measures.

4. ICO

"With celebrity endorsers like DJ Khaled and Paris Hilton, ICO’s have been one of the most talked about terms not only in the financial space, but in the mainstream media, as well. While more than three billion dollars has been raised in ICOs, the SEC and other regulatory bodies have cracked down on the offerings. Despite this, investment flows have not slowed amidst the bitcoin boom.

3. FAANG

"This new term was coined by Jim Cramer to represent the top performing stocks in the market, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google (Alphabet). These five companies continue to dominate financial headlines as their market caps race to $1 Trillion.

2. Blockchain

"Wall Street might write bitcoin off as all hype, but blockchain is poised to disrupt multiple industries. In 2017, CB Insights reported that more than $327 million was invested in blockchain start-ups this year, with major backing from major brands such as Google, Goldman Sachs and Citi.

1. Bitcoin

"$8,000! $11,000! $20,000?! 2017 was the year of bitcoin mania. The cryptocurrency started the year at $1,000 and since then, has risen more than 1500%. While some say bitcoin is a bubble, its aggressive growth has dominated the minds of the media and the financial services sector. 2017 saw the first bitcoin billionaires as well as the introduction of bitcoin futures. With only 1,000 users owning more than 40% of the currency, according to some reports, investors are carefully watching if the price will fall or continue to rally.

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