What ingredients the crypto Fear & Greed Index mixes, and in what proportions, to show market mood on a 0 to 100 scale, what its zone labels mean and don't mean, and what to watch for when checking its track record.
In crypto, 'the Fear & Greed Index' usually means the crypto index alternative.me publishes once a day. The stock market index with the same name is a separate index built by a different publisher from different inputs. Same name, different source, different value, so start by checking who made the number you are looking at. This guide uses alternative.me's index, the one most quoted in crypto, and explains it according to the method it publishes.
alternative.me says it builds the index from six ingredients, all measured around bitcoin. As of October 2026 the survey component is described as paused, so the actual calculation uses the rest. The publisher can change the components and weights, so its official page is the accurate reference.
The closer to 0, the more fear; the closer to 100, the more greed. This site's Fear & Greed Gazette follows the publisher's classification: 0 to 25 is extreme fear, 26 to 46 fear, 47 to 54 neutral, 55 to 75 greed and 76 to 100 extreme greed. These labels make the number easier to read; they do not say what to do in each zone. Values near a boundary can switch labels within a day, so watching the number and how it changes is less misleading than watching the label.
Looking at the ingredients, values derived from price action, such as volatility, volume and momentum, carry most of the weight. So when bitcoin drops sharply, the volatility and momentum components swing toward fear at once, and a steady rise pushes them toward greed. In other words, the index is less an independent piece of information than a one-number summary of recent price action and the reaction to it. Extreme fear usually means the price has already fallen a lot, and that alone does not tell you what happens next.
You often hear that fear zones are opportunities, but the record shows fear zones lasting for weeks at a time and greed zones persisting too. Testing the saying against history takes some care. When the same zone lasts several days, the outcomes after those days overlap, so counting each day as an independent case inflates the sample. And if bitcoin rose a lot over the period, picking any day at random looks good, so zone results need to be set beside an 'all days' baseline. Remember too that the conclusion can change with the period you choose.
Because it is one easy number, the index readily becomes a basis for decisions, but followed through its definition it says rather little.
The Fear & Greed Gazette pulls the full alternative.me history from February 2018 and shows today's value against yesterday, a week, a month and a year ago, the index alongside the bitcoin price over chosen periods, and the index components on one screen. It also shows how bitcoin actually moved over the 7, 30 and 90 days after days in each zone, as a median and share of rises, compares them with an all-days baseline, and lists the non-overlapping sample count separately. The Crypto Cycle Compass combines the index with bitcoin's RSI, momentum and dominance, and the Dominance Radar shows the same index next to dominance.
The crypto Fear & Greed Index blends bitcoin's volatility, volume and momentum, social media, dominance and search trends into a 0 to 100 number; it reflects price action heavily and usually moves in the same direction as the price. The zone labels are only reading aids, and when you look at the track record, check overlapping days and the baseline comparison. This guide explains how the indicator is built; it is not investment advice and does not recommend any trade.
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