Fear & Greed Index

The Fear & Greed Index is a sentiment indicator that measures the prevailing emotions in the Bitcoin market. It ranges from 0 (Extreme Fear) to 100 (Extreme Greed), providing a quantitative measure of market psychology.

This indicator is based on the principle that extreme fear can signal oversold conditions and potential buying opportunities, while extreme greed often precedes market tops. We source Alternative.me’s official readings (volatility, momentum, social media, surveys, dominance, Google Trends) and backfill earlier history using our internal price-derived methodology so you can analyze sentiment prior to 2018.

Historically, periods of extreme fear have been excellent long-term buying opportunities, while periods of extreme greed have often marked local or cycle tops. This makes it a valuable contrarian indicator - when the crowd is fearful, it may be time to buy, and when the crowd is greedy, it may be time to sell.

Primary data comes from Alternative.me’s official Fear & Greed feed (volatility 25%, market momentum 25%, social media 15%, surveys 15%, dominance 10%, Google Trends 10%). For dates before Alternative.me coverage, we backfill using a price-derived model (volatility, momentum, price strength, trend) so the chart remains continuous back to 2011. All components are normalized to the same 0-100 scale.