Crypto Fear & Greed Index
One number, updated daily, that summarises the mood of the global crypto market — from 0 (extreme fear) to 100 (extreme greed). Traders watch it as a contrarian gut-check: crowds tend to be most greedy near tops and most fearful near bottoms.
Updated 6 Sept 2026
Yesterday 73 · Greed
A week ago 69 · Greed
A month ago 29 · Fear
Last 90 days
range 9–74How to read it
Volatility, momentum, volume, Bitcoin dominance and social chatter — compressed into one score. A low number means the crowd is scared, not that crypto is cheap.
Readings between 30 and 70 say little. Sustained extremes historically lined up with turning points — though they can persist far longer than anyone expects.
The index is most useful as a check on your own emotions before acting. If a red number makes you want to sell everything, that's the emotion it exists to measure. See building a sensible habit.
What's inside the number
The score isn't a poll or an opinion — it's a weighted blend of six measurable signals, recalculated daily. Knowing the recipe tells you what a move actually means: a volatility-driven fear spike is a different animal from a slow social-media greed build.
Current volatility and max drawdowns vs recent averages — unusual volatility reads as fear.
Buying volume and momentum vs recent norms — sustained high buying reads as greed.
Crypto post rates and engagement velocity — viral excitement is a greed signal.
Periodic sentiment polling (paused at times, reweighted when inactive).
Money hiding in Bitcoin reads as fear; rotation into alts reads as greed.
What people Google — spikes in "bitcoin crash" queries versus buying-intent searches.
When the needle hit the ends
The index earns its keep at the extremes — and the famous ones are worth knowing, because they show both its power and its trap: extremes marked genuine turning points, and persisted long enough to punish anyone who traded them impatiently.
COVID crash: the index pinned near record lows as Bitcoin halved in days — the decade's canonical extreme-fear moment, months before a historic bull run.
The all-time-high mania: weeks of extreme greed around Bitcoin's (then) US$69k top. The zone persisted long enough to feel normal — which was the warning.
FTX collapsed and the index camped in extreme fear for weeks. In hindsight it bracketed the cycle bottom; at the time it just felt like the end.
US spot-ETF approval euphoria drove some of the highest readings since 2021 — greed that, unusually, arrived with institutional money attached.
Using it without fooling yourself
A single reading is weather; a month in one zone is climate. Judge the 90-day chart's shape, not this morning's number — the daily wiggle mostly restates yesterday's price candle.
Sentiment says what the crowd feels — pair it with what the market is doing: Bitcoin dominance for composition and price trend for direction. Agreement between them is the interesting event.
If the index is part of your process, write the rule before the emotion arrives — "I rebalance when X persists for Y weeks" — because at the extremes, the index is measuring you too.
FAQ
What actually goes into the number?
The index blends measurable market signals — price momentum and volatility, trading volume, Bitcoin’s share of the market, and social-media activity — into a single 0–100 score. It is calculated daily by alternative.me. Nothing about it is Australian-specific; crypto trades in one global market.
How do people use it?
Mostly as a contrarian sanity-check. Long stretches of extreme greed have historically coincided with market tops, and extreme fear with bottoms — Warren Buffett’s “be fearful when others are greedy” applied to crypto. It describes the mood; it does not predict tomorrow.
Should I buy when it shows extreme fear?
The index is an information tool, not a signal to act. Extreme fear can persist for months while prices keep falling — as the 90-day chart above often shows. Nothing on this page is financial advice; it simply tells you what the crowd is feeling today.
Why does it jump around so much day to day?
Because its heaviest inputs — volatility and momentum — are themselves jumpy. A 5% overnight move in Bitcoin can swing the index by double digits. That’s why the 90-day chart matters more than any single reading: the zone the index lives in tells you the regime; the daily wiggle mostly tells you yesterday’s candle.
Does it cover altcoins, or just Bitcoin?
It’s calculated primarily from Bitcoin-centric data, on the logic that Bitcoin sets the whole market’s emotional weather. In practice altcoin sentiment usually runs in the same direction as the index, just with more amplitude — altcoins get greedier in greed and more fearful in fear.
Index data by alternative.me, refreshed daily. Component weights per the published methodology.
General information only, not financial advice. The index describes market sentiment; it does not predict prices, and acting on it can lose you money.