Crypto Fear and Greed Index Today

The crypto Fear and Greed Index compresses Bitcoin market sentiment into one daily number from 0 to 100, where low values mean fear and high values mean greed. The data comes from alternative.me, and each reading falls into one of five zones: extreme fear, fear, neutral, greed and extreme greed. The score refreshes once a day, while the BTC price beside it, from Binance, updates hourly, so the price can move while the score does not.

What goes into the score

alternative.me builds the index from several weighted inputs, all centered on Bitcoin:

• Volatility (25%): current volatility and maximum drawdowns against 30-day and 90-day averages. Unusually high volatility pushes the score toward fear.
• Market momentum and volume (25%): measured against the same averages. Heavy buying volume in a rising market reads as greed.
• Social media (15%): volume and engagement of Bitcoin-related posts against normal levels.
• Surveys (15%): weekly polls of market participants, currently paused.
• Bitcoin dominance (10%): a rising Bitcoin dominance reads as fear, as money moves out of riskier altcoins into BTC. Falling dominance reads as speculative appetite.
• Search trends (10%): Google Trends data for Bitcoin-related queries.

There is no separate Ethereum or altcoin score; ETH sentiment readings use this same Bitcoin-based index. For breadth across coins, the Altcoin Season Index is the closer tool.

How to read the number

A reading is most useful against recent values. A fall from 64 to 29 within a month says sentiment has turned sharply, while weeks near 29 describe a settled, cautious market.

The common contrarian reading holds that extreme fear can mark capitulation and extreme greed can mark froth. For example, a hypothetical trader who buys only when the index is below 20 is betting that panic overshoots fundamentals. The index cannot time the bottom, and fear can persist through long declines.

Crypto index vs. the CNN index

The CNN Business Fear & Greed Index measures the US stock market from seven inputs, including S&P 500 momentum, put/call ratios, VIX and junk bond spreads. Its bands also differ: 55 is Greed on the crypto index but Neutral on CNN’s. Despite the shared name and 0 to 100 scale, the two scores are not interchangeable.

Limits

• Social and search data can spike on news that has little to do with valuation. Pairing the index with an on-chain valuation measure such as the MVRV Z-Score separates mood from price relative to cost basis.
• With surveys paused, the remaining inputs carry the score.
• Leverage-driven intraday moves, which a daily score misses, show up more directly on a liquidation heatmap.