Crypto Fear and Greed Index Today

Crypto fear and greed indices are composite scores: several market measurements, each capturing a different symptom of fear or greed, are normalised and combined into one number. The original and most widely cited methodology, published by Alternative.me, uses six inputs with the weights below. Other publishers, including CoinMarketCap, use a similar mix of volatility, momentum, positioning and social data with their own weightings.

The index is a contrarian tool. The behaviour it measures - panic selling, euphoric buying, social media frenzy - is the behaviour of the crowd, and the crowd is usually most wrong at the extremes. That gives two practical uses:

• Extreme fearAppears after sharp declines, when leveraged longs have been liquidated and sellers are exhausted. Historically a better zone to accumulate than to capitulate. Look for confirmation in falling open interest, which shows the forced selling is done.
• Extreme greedAppears after strong rallies when leverage is high and everyone is already long. A reason to tighten stops, take partial profit and avoid chasing - especially when the funding rate is elevated at the same time.

What it is not is a timing signal. The index can sit in Greed for weeks during a trend and in Fear for months during a bear market. Use it to size and manage risk in proportion to how crowded the trade is, not to pick tops and bottoms on its own.