The Crypto Fear and Greed Index, one of the most widely used gauges of crypto investor sentiment, dropped back to the “severe fear” level after a brief recovery on Wednesday.
According to CoinMarketCap, the Crypto Fear and Greed Index is at 18 at the time of writing, down from 20 recorded on Friday. 20 signs of “fear”, an atmosphere of caution among investors, but an improvement in market sentiment below.
Sentiment briefly touched 25 on Wednesday but fell after geopolitical tensions between the US, Israel and Iran dampened risk appetite and increased macroeconomic uncertainty among market participants.
The index hit a 5-year low in February on the back of the cryptocurrency market 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 that sent the price of Bitcoin (BTC) down more than 50% from its all-time high, before BTC staged a limited recovery and wiped hundreds of billions of dollars from the altcoin market.
related to: Bitcoin Sentiment Hits Record Low As Contrarian Investors Say $60K Was BTC’s Bottom
Alts suffer the most as emotional craters
According to CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost, 38% of altcoins are near all-time lows, which is more severe than the effects of the FTX collapse.
The price drop was accompanied by a nearly 50% drop in crypto trading volume, Darkfast told Cointelegraph.
“Altcoins remain the last sector of the crypto market where liquidity typically flows, so this is not surprising given the geopolitical and macroeconomic deterioration seen over the past few months,” he said.
According to crypto market sentiment analysis platform Santiment, mentions of altcoins on social media platforms fell to the lowest level in two years.
According to Google Trends, in February 2026, the worldwide Google search volume for “Bitcoin going to zero” also reached its highest level since 2022, confirming low investor confidence with other sentiment indicators.
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