What the index measures
The Fear & Greed Index is a widely followed crypto market sentiment gauge published daily by alternative.me. It condenses multiple market signals into a single score meant to capture whether traders are currently acting out of fear (which tends to correlate with selling and undervaluation) or greed (which tends to correlate with buying and overvaluation).
This is not a bitcoinnews.io proprietary metric. bitcoinnews.io displays the published index value live; the underlying methodology and calculation are entirely alternative.me's. For a metric built directly by bitcoinnews.io from live on-chain and mempool data, see Mempool Heat.
The 0–100 scale
| Range | Label | General reading |
|---|---|---|
| 0–24 | Extreme Fear | Investors are very worried — historically sometimes coincides with local bottoms. |
| 25–49 | Fear | Cautious market mood, below-average risk appetite. |
| 50–74 | Greed | Above-average risk appetite, growing optimism. |
| 75–100 | Extreme Greed | Investors are very bullish — historically sometimes coincides with local tops. |
What drives the score
alternative.me computes the index from a weighted blend of factors including price volatility, trading volume relative to recent averages, social media activity and sentiment, Bitcoin's market dominance, and Google search trends related to Bitcoin. The exact weighting is proprietary to alternative.me and has evolved over time; bitcoinnews.io does not control or modify the inputs.
How to interpret it
The index is best read as a contrarian-leaning sentiment gauge rather than a timing signal: extreme readings in either direction have historically often (not always) preceded reversals, on the logic that markets overshoot when emotion dominates. It is most useful alongside other data, not in isolation — pair it with live fee pressure and large-transaction activity on Bitcoin Mempool for a fuller picture of current market conditions.
Limitations
- The index updates once per day, so it does not capture intraday sentiment shifts — it reflects yesterday's aggregate reading until the next daily update.
- Historical correlation between extreme readings and price turning points is not a reliable predictor; the index has produced false signals in both directions.
- Methodology and input weighting are controlled entirely by alternative.me and are not independently verifiable or reproducible by bitcoinnews.io.
- This is not financial advice — treat the index as one input among many, not a trading signal on its own.
Data source and update frequency
Values come from the alternative.me /fng/ public API. alternative.me refreshes the index once daily; bitcoinnews.io polls the endpoint on the server approximately every 8 seconds and will reflect a new value as soon as alternative.me publishes it.