One number for the crowd's mood, from 0 (extreme fear) to 100 (extreme greed). It is useful as context — how stretched sentiment is, how long it has been stretched — and useless as a trigger. Below: today's reading, the last year, and what to do with it.
Source: alternative.me. Updated daily after 00:00 UTC.
Shaded bands: extreme fear (below 25) and extreme greed (above 75).
As a dial for aggression, not a switch for direction. When the index sits in extreme greed for days, the honest response is smaller size on new longs, tighter discipline on taking profit, and no chasing — because the buyers who would have carried the move are mostly already in. When it sits in extreme fear, the response is patience and a watch-list of levels, not a market buy: the index cannot tell you whether the low is in, only that the crowd has stopped expecting one.
Three checks before you let the number change a decision. Is the reading extreme, or just fear or greed? Extremes carry information; the middle carries almost none. Has it been extreme for long? The streak counter above matters more than a single print. And does the chart agree — is price at a level where a reversal would make structural sense? Sentiment at a level is a setup; sentiment in the middle of nowhere is a mood.
Computed from the fetched history — the highest and lowest readings, and the longest runs in each extreme.
| Statistic | Value | Date |
|---|---|---|
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alternative.me publishes the recipe: price volatility against recent averages, market momentum and volume, social media activity, Bitcoin dominance and Google Trends data, weighted into a single daily number. It is Bitcoin-centric, it is backward-looking by construction, and several of its inputs are themselves driven by price — which is why the index tends to confirm a move rather than anticipate it. That is not a flaw; it is what a sentiment gauge is. The mistake is asking it to be a forecast.
What is the Crypto Fear & Greed Index? A daily score from 0 (extreme fear) to 100 (extreme greed) published by alternative.me, built from volatility, market momentum and volume, social media activity, Bitcoin dominance and search trends. It summarises crowd mood, not value.
Is extreme fear a buy signal? Historically, extreme fear has clustered near the later stages of declines and extreme greed near the later stages of rallies, but the index can stay extreme for weeks while price keeps moving. Treat it as context for sizing and patience, never as an entry on its own.
How often does the index update? Once a day, shortly after 00:00 UTC. This page fetches the published history and refreshes every hour.
What are the zones? 0–24 extreme fear, 25–44 fear, 45–55 neutral, 56–75 greed, 76–100 extreme greed. The boundaries are conventions, not thresholds with proven predictive power.
Mood is not a plan
Fear and greed only matter at a level, with a stop and a size decided in advance. The trade planner puts all three on one screen.