The Fear and Greed Index of the cryptocurrency market from the Alternative platform has reached a record low of only 5 out of 100 possible points. This is the lowest level in the entire history of observations. For several weeks now, the indicator has remained in the 'extreme fear' zone, reflecting the subdued moods of investors.

For comparison: even in the summer of 2022, after the collapse of the Terra ecosystem and the massive market drop, the index value did not fall below 8 points.

Against this background, $BTC $ETH are at the bottom, which provides an opportunity to buy them for the spot portfolio.

What does the drop of the index to 5 points mean?

The fear and greed index measures the emotional state of cryptocurrency market participants on a scale from 0 to 100:

  • 0–24 — extreme fear

  • 25–46 — fear

  • 46–49 — neutral zone

  • 50–74 — greed

  • 75–100 — extreme greed

The lower the indicator, the stronger the panic sentiment dominates the market, leading to sell-offs and risk aversion. The current level of 5 points signals a prolonged period of pressure and high caution among investors.

How the fear and greed index is calculated

The indicator is primarily focused on Bitcoin (BTC) and is formed based on several factors:

  • volatility of BTC price;

  • trading volumes;

  • activity and comments on social networks;

  • Bitcoin's dominance in the total market capitalization;

  • search queries on Google.

The dynamics of the indicator are directly related to the decline in cryptocurrency quotes.

The cryptocurrency market capitalization has decreased by $700 billion

Since the beginning of the year, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization has decreased by approximately $700 billion — from $3 trillion to $2.3 trillion.

During the same period, Bitcoin has decreased by 25%. As of 12:00 Moscow time on February 12, BTC is trading around $67,000.

Other indicators confirm extreme fear

The similar fear and greed index from CoinMarketCap is also in the extreme fear zone — at a level of 8 points out of 100.

The indicator from the analytical platform Coinglass shows 6 points, confirming extremely negative market sentiment.