Crypto Fear & Greed Index
A single 0–100 number summarising how the market feels, rebuilt daily from volatility, momentum, social volume, dominance and search trends.
57 Greed Built into the page
0 Extreme fear50Extreme greed 100
Yesterday 61 Greed
A week ago 71 Greed
A month ago 34 Fear
The past year
What the bands mean
| Range | Label | What it usually reflects |
|---|---|---|
| 0–24 | Extreme Fear | Sellers are exhausted or panicking. Historically these readings clustered near local lows, but they have also persisted for weeks during genuine bear markets. |
| 25–44 | Fear | Risk appetite is below normal. Volumes thin out and rallies get sold. |
| 45–55 | Neutral | No strong directional sentiment. The index carries the least information here. |
| 56–74 | Greed | Momentum chasing is normal and dips are bought quickly. |
| 75–100 | Extreme Greed | Leverage and funding usually run hot at the same time. Drawdowns from here tend to be fast because there are more forced sellers. |
How the number is built
Alternative.me publishes the index daily. The weights are their own and have been stable for years:
- Volatility — 25%. Current volatility and maximum drawdown against 30- and 90-day averages. Unusual volatility reads as fear.
- Market momentum and volume — 25%. Volume and momentum against their 30- and 90-day averages. High buying volume in a rising market reads as greed.
- Social media — 15%. Post volume and engagement on crypto hashtags.
- Bitcoin dominance — 10%. Rising dominance is treated as a flight to safety within crypto, so it reads as fear.
- Google Trends — 10%. Search interest, weighted by which queries are rising — “bitcoin price manipulation” reads very differently from “buy bitcoin”.
- Surveys — 15%, currently paused. The polling component has not been collected for years, so the remaining factors carry it.
Honest limitations
This is a Bitcoin-weighted sentiment gauge, not a trading signal. It is a coincident indicator: it describes conditions that already exist rather than predicting the next move. Extreme readings can persist for weeks — in 2022 the index sat below 20 for most of a quarter, and buying the first “extreme fear” print was a losing trade for months. Use it as context next to funding rates and open interest, which measure positioning rather than mood.