Bitcoin (BTC) Trader Sentiment Has Plunged Back Into the Extreme Fear Zone

Data shows the Bitcoin trader sentiment has plunged back into the extreme fear zone as the asset's price has erased its recent gains.

Data from Alternative shows that the Bitcoin (BTC) Fear & Greed Index has plunged back into the extreme fear zone as the asset’s price has seen a steep retracement from the recent crypto strategic reserve hype rally.

Bitcoin’s Price Chart Recent

Bitcoin and the rest of the cryptocurrency market kicked off this new week on a very positive note as prices across the sector saw a sharp improvement following the crypto strategic reserve announcement from US President Donald Trump.

However, it would appear that this optimism couldn’t last, as the various assets have already witnessed a retracement.

The below chart shows the price movements of BTC over the last seven days:

As is evident from the graph, Bitcoin touched the $95,000 mark at the height of the surge, but it has since seen a plummet to $82,600. This means that not only has the number one cryptocurrency erased all its gains from the crypto reserve rally, it has, in fact, gone even lower than where it started.

Over the last 24 hours, BTC has printed losses of around 11%. The altcoins have fared even worse on average, with Ethereum (ETH) and XRP (XRP) sitting at 13% and 14% in the red, respectively.

Given all this volatility, it’s to be expected that the investor sentiment would have observed a drastic shift. And indeed, the trend in the Fear & Greed Index would confirm this.

Fear & Greed Index Back In Extreme Fear

The “Fear & Greed Index” is an indicator created by Alternative that tells us about the sentiment that the average trader in the Bitcoin and wider cryptocurrency markets is holding right now.

The metric uses a numeric scale that runs from 0-100 for denoting the market mentality. Values higher than 53 correlate to a sentiment of greed, while those under 47 suggest the dominance of fear. The index being in-between these thresholds implies a net-neutral mentality.

There are also two special zones called extreme greed (occurring above 75) and extreme fear (below 25). The market appears to be in the latter of these regions now, as the latest reading of the Fear & Greed Index displays.

The indicator is currently at a value of 15, but just yesterday, it was at a much higher level of 33. Here is a chart that shows how the index has changed recently:

As is apparent from the graph, the Bitcoin Fear & Greed Index fell to a low of 10 at the end of February, but optimism among investors returned as the Trump announcement came. Now, the crash has once again wiped out hope among the traders.

The return to extreme fear may not be so bad for BTC and the others, however, as this zone is where their prices have historically bottomed out. It only remains to be seen how much worse sentiment would have to get before a low is hit this time around.