Crypto Fear & Greed Index

What the Fear & Greed Index actually measures

The crypto Fear & Greed Index boils a lot of noisy market data down to one score. The idea is simple: markets tend to swing between two emotions. When prices are falling, people get fearful and often sell for less than an asset may be worth. When prices are climbing, greed takes over and people pile in — sometimes right before a pullback. The index tries to put a number on where that emotional pendulum is sitting today.

A low number means the market is fearful. A high number means it is greedy. It is a sentiment gauge, not a price prediction — it tells you how the crowd feels, not what will happen next.

How to read the score

What goes into the number

The score published by alternative.me blends several market signals rather than relying on any single one. Broadly, it looks at:

• Volatility — how sharply prices are moving compared with recent averages. Big swings usually mean fear.
• Market momentum and volume — whether buying pressure is strong relative to the recent norm.
• Social media activity — how much and how excitedly people are posting about crypto.
• Bitcoin dominance — Bitcoin's share of the total market, which tends to rise when people are cautious and rotate out of smaller coins.
• Search trends — how often people are searching for crypto terms online.

Those inputs are combined into the single 0–100 figure you see above. The index is Bitcoin-led, so it reflects the mood of the overall market more than any one altcoin.

How people use it

A well-known investing phrase is to "be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful." Some long-term investors treat extreme-fear readings as a moment to look closer rather than panic-sell, and extreme-greed readings as a reminder to check their risk. That is a mindset, not a signal — the index has no ability to predict prices, and plenty of fearful markets have kept falling while greedy ones kept climbing.

The most sensible way to use it is as one small input among many: a quick temperature check that stops you from getting swept up in the emotion of a single day. It should never be the reason you buy or sell on its own.

Frequently asked questions