What Is The Fear And Greed Index?
The Fear and Greed Index is a popular indicator that measures market sentiment on a scale from 0 to 100, where low scores indicate Fear and high scores indicate Greed. The index is used in both the stock market and the crypto market to show whether investors are currently pessimistic or optimistic.Although there is no official Fear and Greed Index, the crypto market does have one widely used version.
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đź•’ 7:33 PM
đź“… Dec 22, 2025
✍️ By chrison2
Key Takeaways
•The Fear and Greed Index measures market sentiment in the crypto and stock markets on a scale from 0 (fear) to 100 (greed).
•The crypto version focuses mainly on Bitcoin and shows how investors are emotionally responding at that moment.
•The index is composed of factors such as volatility, volume, social media, Bitcoin dominance, and Google Trends.
•Investors mainly use the index to recognize emotions and make better-informed decisions.
•The index has limitations, such as its focus on Bitcoin and the absence of predictive value.
°Which factors determine the Fear & Greed Index?
There are several Fear & Greed Indexes for the crypto market, but the most commonly used version is calculated based on several factors that together provide an impression of current market sentiment. This popular index (from Alternative.me) is updated daily and weighs the components in a similar way to track sentiment trends.
•Volatility (25%): A sudden increase in price fluctuations often indicates fear. Volatility is compared to averages over the past 30 to 90 days.
•Market momentum and trading volume (25%): A strong increase in volume during an upward trend often signals greed, while declining momentum or low volumes indicate fear.
•Social media (15%): High activity on platforms such as X, mainly around hashtags related to Bitcoin, may signal increasing euphoria or hype.
•Surveys (15%, currently paused): Surveys were previously conducted to gauge how crypto investors feel, but their influence has declined in recent years.
•Bitcoin dominance (10%): Bitcoin dominance forms a separate factor: an increase often indicates fear, as investors move toward assets considered relatively safe.
•Google Trends (10%): A strong rise in search queries about Bitcoin shows growing interest and thus usually greed or emerging hype, though fear-related search terms can also be included.
