Fear and Greed Index

Simple explanation

Background: CoinGaja's top bar shows alternative.me's Crypto Fear & Greed Index. Upbit, the Korean exchange, also publishes a separate index of its own in its Data Lab, built from Upbit's prices and trading volume.

The index turns data such as price volatility, trading volume and social media buzz into a score for how scared or excited the market is: near 0 is fear, near 100 greed. The widely used crypto version comes from alternative.me, which publishes it daily and has records going back to February 2018.

alternative.me's index is currently for bitcoin only and weights six inputs. Volatility (25%) compares current volatility and maximum drawdowns with 30- and 90-day averages; unusually high means fear. Market momentum and volume (25%) compares current volume and momentum with 30- and 90-day averages; heavy buying in a rising market means greed. Social media (15%) counts crypto posts and interactions on Twitter (now X); unusually high means greed. Surveys (15%) are weekly polls, currently paused. Dominance (10%) reads a rising bitcoin share as fear (a flight to the relatively safe coin) and a falling one as greed (a move into riskier altcoins). Trends (10%) uses changes in Google search volume.

By the classes alternative.me itself assigns, 0-25 is Extreme Fear, 26-46 Fear, 47-54 Neutral, 55-75 Greed and 76-100 Extreme Greed. The index updates once a day, so a sharp move within the day shows up only at the next update. Since records began, the lowest reading has been 5 and the highest 95; it touched that record low of 5 again in February 2026, and from May 2022 it stayed in Extreme Fear for 74 days in a row.

The index shows how scared or excited other people are; it does not predict prices. A common contrarian reading says extreme fear is overdone worry and may be near a bottom, while extreme greed is froth that may come before a pullback. But as the streaks above show, extreme fear can last weeks or more than two months, so fear alone does not mark a bottom. alternative.me itself says the index is not investment advice. Do not use it as a buy or sell signal.

Indexes with the same name use different ingredients and give different numbers and labels. CoinMarketCap builds its own from the price action of top coins, bitcoin and Ethereum options, the stablecoin supply ratio and more, and Upbit's Data Lab has its own fear and greed index calculated from Upbit's prices and trading volume. Always check whose index you are looking at.

alternative.me's index is built from global data, so it does not capture the mood of the Korean market. When Korean buying is stronger than abroad the kimchi premium tends to rise, and when it weakens the premium shrinks or turns into a reverse premium, which is why some people treat the premium as a thermometer for the Korean market. Reading the Fear and Greed Index next to the Kimchi Premium Index shows whether the global and Korean moods point the same way.

On CoinGaja's top bar, 공포·탐욕 ("F&G" on English pages) shows alternative.me's number and class (Extreme Fear, Fear, Neutral, Greed, Extreme Greed), in red on the greed side and blue on the fear side, with Alternative.me credited as the source. The index itself changes once a day, so the number rarely moves within the day.

Example

※ Example numbers, for illustration only

See it on CoinGaja

• 📊 Kimchi premium by coin›
• 📈 CoinGaja Kimchi Premium Index›

Related terms