Crypto Bargains · Market mood
Crypto Fear and Greed Index today
Alternative.me publishes this 0 to 100 crypto sentiment reading once a day. We chart every value since February 2018 and line the readings up against Bitcoin's halvings, peaks and lows.
Crypto Fear & Greed, 14 October 2026
62 Greed
- Yesterday 57 Greed
- Last week 71 Greed
- Last month 57 Greed
- Last year 38 Fear
Key takeaways
- Today the index reads 62 (Greed). Alternative.me publishes one reading per UTC day, from 0 for extreme fear to 100 for extreme greed.
- Across 3,174 days since February 2018 the average is 45.7, and 52% of days closed in Fear or Extreme Fear.
- In the slides from a cycle peak to the bear-market low, fear took 85% and 91% of days.
- Crypto Bargains uses the reading in its sentiment sub-score, its zone rules and its market cycle phase.
Crypto, not stocks
Looking for CNN's Fear & Greed Index? That one covers the US stock market and is built from seven stock market measures. This page is only about the crypto index, which Alternative.me works out from Bitcoin's volatility, trading volume, social media, dominance and search trends.
Every daily reading since February 2018
- Extreme Fear
- Fear
- Neutral
- Greed
- Extreme Greed
- Halving, peak or low
The line is the published value for each UTC day, 3,174 readings from 1 February 2018 to 14 October 2026. Over that stretch the average is 45.7 and the median 44, so a typical day sits just on the fearful side of the middle. The last 365 days averaged 30.0.
The extremes cluster. The longest unbroken run of Extreme Fear lasted 74 days, from 6 May 2022 to 18 July 2022, and the longest run of Extreme Greed 76 days, from 6 November 2020 to 20 January 2021. Today's reading has held its band for 22 days in a row.
- Lowest reading 5 First on 22 Aug 2019
- Highest reading 95 First on 26 Jun 2019
- Average since 2018 45.7 Median 44
- Average, last 365 days 30.0 3,174 readings in all
Year by year
Average, range and days at each extreme for every calendar year
| Year | Readings | Average | Low | High | Extreme Fear days | Extreme Greed days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 331 | 30.8 | 8 | 74 | 138 | 0 |
| 2019 | 365 | 45.1 | 5 | 95 | 59 | 21 |
| 2020 | 366 | 52.9 | 8 | 95 | 49 | 80 |
| 2021 | 365 | 54.9 | 10 | 95 | 72 | 84 |
| 2022 | 365 | 25.3 | 6 | 60 | 207 | 0 |
| 2023 | 365 | 54.7 | 25 | 75 | 3 | 0 |
| 2024 | 365 | 63.3 | 17 | 94 | 8 | 86 |
| 2025 | 365 | 48.7 | 10 | 84 | 66 | 10 |
| 2026 | 287 | 31.6 | 5 | 78 | 137 | 1 |
How often each level comes up
Fear has been the more common state. 52% of all days closed at 46 or below and 35% at 55 or above, with 13% in the narrow neutral band between. Extreme Fear (23% of days) has turned up much more often than Extreme Greed (9%).
The bands are the ones Alternative.me uses, and we measured them from the published labels on 10 October 2026 before building the Bargain Score around them: Extreme Fear up to 25, Fear 26 to 46, Neutral 47 to 54, Greed 55 to 75 and Extreme Greed from 76.
| Band | Range | Days | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extreme Fear | 0–25 | 739 | 23% |
| Fear | 26–46 | 909 | 29% |
| Neutral | 47–54 | 401 | 13% |
| Greed | 55–75 | 843 | 27% |
| Extreme Greed | 76–100 | 282 | 9% |
Fear and greed through Bitcoin's cycles
We split the history at Bitcoin's halvings, cycle peaks and bear-market lows, using the same dates as the halving page, and measured the index inside each stretch. In the two slides from a peak to the following low, fear took 85% and 91% of days. From each halving to the next peak the average sat at 60 and 58.
Since the peak on 6 October 2025 the average has been 30, with 80% of days in fear. That stretch has no confirmed low yet, so it stays open in the table.
These phases are dated after the event, from the price. On 21 November 2022, the day of that cycle's low, the index read 21, yet it had been down at 6 five months earlier, in June. The readings describe how the market felt along the way; they did not mark the turns on the day.
Reading the table
Each row runs from one milestone to the day before the next. The first row starts on 1 February 2018, when the index begins, so it misses the first six weeks after the December 2017 peak.
| Stretch | Dates | Days | Average | In fear | Extreme fear | In greed | Extreme greed | Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peak to bear-market low | 1 Feb 2018 to 15 Dec 2018 | 314 | 31 | 85% | 41% | 7% | 0% | 8–74 |
| Low to halving | 15 Dec 2018 to 11 May 2020 | 513 | 42 | 63% | 23% | 28% | 4% | 5–95 |
| Halving to cycle peak | 11 May 2020 to 10 Nov 2021 | 548 | 60 | 32% | 11% | 57% | 30% | 10–95 |
| Peak to bear-market low | 10 Nov 2021 to 21 Nov 2022 | 376 | 27 | 91% | 56% | 3% | 0% | 6–77 |
| Low to halving | 21 Nov 2022 to 20 Apr 2024 | 516 | 56 | 20% | 2% | 52% | 8% | 20–90 |
| Halving to cycle peak | 20 Apr 2024 to 6 Oct 2025 | 533 | 58 | 25% | 4% | 58% | 10% | 10–94 |
| Since the cycle peak | 6 Oct 2025 to 14 Oct 2026 (latest) | 374 | 30 | 80% | 50% | 16% | 0% | 5–78 |
How Crypto Bargains uses the reading
The screener reads the index on every five-minute refresh, although the value only changes once a day. It enters the model in four places, and because it is one number for the whole market it can move every coin's score and zone on the same morning. On 10 October 2026 it went from 59 to 64 overnight, which took it past 60, one of the Expensive conditions.
Today in the model
62, Greed
Sentiment input 0.38. Neither the fear boost nor the greed penalty applies.
Read the full method| Use | Rule in the code |
|---|---|
| Sentiment sub-score (20% of the Bargain Score) | Half of the sub-score is 1 minus the index divided by 100, so a reading of 20 contributes 0.8 and a reading of 80 contributes 0.2. |
| Fear boost and greed penalty | The whole score is multiplied by 1.15 when the index is under 30 and the coin is more than half below its high, and by 0.85 when the index is over 75. |
| Zone conditions | Deep discount needs 25 or below; Discount counts 40 or below; Mild discount 45 or below. The lower end of Fair value counts 55 or above and Expensive 60 or above, or 75 or above in its strictest form. |
| Market cycle phase | One of five readings behind the phase label, scored as 100 minus twice the index (never below 0) on a scale where 100 leans bear. |
What goes into the index
Alternative.me describes six inputs on its own page, which we read on 12 October 2026. Two of the weightings need a caveat: the survey part is marked as paused, and the Reddit side of the social media measure is not in the live index yet, only the Twitter count. We publish the index as they do and have not tried to rebuild it.
Source
Alternative.me builds and publishes the index; OutsmartMoney.ai only reads it. Its own description is at alternative.me/crypto/fear-and-greed-index.
| Input | What it measures |
|---|---|
| Volatility (25%) | Bitcoin's current volatility and maximum drawdowns against their 30-day and 90-day averages. An unusual rise reads as fear. |
| Market momentum and volume (25%) | Current volume and momentum against the same 30-day and 90-day averages. Heavy buying in a rising market reads as greed. |
| Social media (15%) | How often posts mention Bitcoin and how fast people interact with them, compared with normal levels. |
| Surveys (15%, paused) | Weekly polls run with strawpoll.com, which Alternative.me also owns. |
| Dominance (10%) | Bitcoin's share of the whole crypto market. A rising share is read as people moving out of more speculative coins. |
| Search trends (10%) | Google Trends data for Bitcoin-related searches, including which related searches are rising. |
FAQ
Questions about the Fear and Greed Index
What is the crypto Fear and Greed Index today?
The index reads 62 (Greed) for 14 October 2026. Yesterday it was 57 and a week ago 71. Alternative.me publishes one value per UTC day, and this page picks it up within five minutes of the screener's next refresh.
Is this the same as CNN's Fear and Greed Index?
No. CNN's index measures the US stock market and is built from seven stock market measures, such as market momentum, options activity and demand for safe havens. The one on this page is Alternative.me's crypto index, which looks at Bitcoin's volatility, volume, social media activity, dominance and search trends.
The two can disagree for weeks at a time, because shares and crypto do not always move together. We only have the crypto data, so we have labelled the page as crypto rather than leave anyone guessing which index they are looking at.
What is the lowest the crypto Fear and Greed Index has been?
The lowest published value is 5, first reached on 22 August 2019. It has touched 5 more than once since, including two days in February 2026. The highest is 95, first on 26 June 2019, and the late-2020 run-up produced readings of 94 or 95 on more than a dozen days between November 2020 and February 2021.
The index has never printed 0 or 100. Its inputs are compared with their own recent averages, so it takes an unusual market on every measure at once to push it right to the edge.
When does the Fear and Greed Index update?
Once a day. Alternative.me publishes a new value for each UTC day shortly after midnight UTC, which is 1am in the UK during British Summer Time and midnight in winter. Crypto Bargains reads it every five minutes, so the new value reaches the screener, the zones and this page on the first refresh after it appears.
Has extreme fear lined up with Bitcoin's lows in the past?
Often, but loosely. The index was in Extreme Fear for much of 2022, the year of that cycle's low, and it spent 74 days in a row there between May and July. The low itself came in November, when the reading was 21, after it had already climbed out of the worst of it and dropped back.
In March 2020 it fell to 8 the day after Bitcoin's lowest price of that year, during the Covid sell-off. It also read 5 in August 2019, eight months after the cycle low, and between 5 and 8 on several days in February 2026, about five months before 1 July 2026, the lowest daily price of the current cycle when we checked in October. Extreme fear has been common near lows, and just as common at times that were not lows.
We treat it as a description of the mood, not a timing signal, and the Bargain Score gives it a fixed weight for that reason.
Can I use these numbers elsewhere?
The data belongs to Alternative.me. Its terms allow reuse, including commercial reuse, as long as the source is credited right next to wherever the data is shown and the result could not be mistaken for its own service. That is why the credit sits beside every chart and table here.
If you want the raw series, Alternative.me offers it free through its own API, and that is where we get it from as well.
Important information
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