Crypto Fear and Greed Index falls back down to ‘extreme fear’ levels

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index, one of the most widely used gauges of crypto investor sentiment, has fallen back down to “extreme fear” levels after briefly recovering on Wednesday.

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index is at 18 at the time of this writing, down from the 20 recorded on Friday, according to CoinMarketCap. 20 signals “fear,” an atmosphere of caution among investors, but an improvement over rock-bottom market sentiment.

Sentiment briefly spiked to 25 on Wednesday, but contracted as geopolitical tensions between the US, Israel and Iran continue to erode risk appetite and increase macroeconomic uncertainty among market participants.

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index hits 18, signaling “extreme fear” among investors. Source: CoinMarketCap

The index hit a yearly low of 5 in February amid the crypto market downturn and several headwinds, including renewed geopolitical tensions and macroeconomic concerns, such as uncertainty over interest rate policy, liquidity levels and rising US government debt.

Crypto assets have been in a bear market since the October 2025 crash, which slashed the price of Bitcoin ($BTC) by over 50% from its all-time high, before $BTC staged a limited recovery, and erased hundreds of billions of dollars in value from the altcoin market.

Related: Bitcoin sentiment hits record low as contrarian investors say $60K was $BTC’s bottom

Alts suffer the most as sentiment craters

38% of altcoins are hovering near all-time low prices, which is more severe than the aftermath of the FTX collapse, according to CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost.

The price collapse was accompanied by about a 50% reduction in crypto trading volume, Darkfost told Cointelegraph.

38% of altcoins are hovering at or near all-time low prices. Source: CryptoQuant

“Altcoins remain the last sector of the crypto market where liquidity typically flows, so this situation is not surprising, given the geopolitical and macroeconomic deterioration observed over the past several months,” he said.

Mentions of altcoins on social media platforms sank to their lowest level in two years, according to crypto market sentiment analysis platform Santiment.

In February 2026, worldwide Google search volume for “Bitcoin going to zero” also hit its highest level since 2022, according to data from Google Trends, corroborating the low investor confidence measured by other sentiment indicators.

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