Bitcoin Fall Under $77,000 Triggers Spike In Social Media FUD

Data shows sentiment around Bitcoin among social media users has turned negative following the recent decline in the cryptocurrency’s price.

In a new post on X, analytics firm Santiment has discussed the latest trend in the Positive/Negative Sentiment for Bitcoin. This metric tells us whether the majority of social media comments aimed at a given asset are positive or negative.

The indicator works by putting posts/messages/threads containing mentions of the cryptocurrency on the major social media platforms through a machine-learning model to separate between bullish and bearish comments. It then counts up the number of posts falling in each category and takes their ratio to determine the net situation.

Now, here is the chart shared by Santiment that shows the trend in the Bitcoin Positive/Negative Sentiment over the past month:

As displayed in the above graph, the Bitcoin Positive/Negative Sentiment shot up into the “FOMO” zone earlier as the cryptocurrency’s recovery surge occurred. This isn’t anything unusual as positive price action tends to spark optimism among traders.

The opposite trend has played out as the asset has gone through its latest pullback. The Positive/Negative Sentiment has now dropped to a value of 0.94, which suggests bearish comments are slightly dominating on social media platforms. This is the lowest that the metric has been since April 21st.

Historically, digital asset markets have often tended to go against the crowd opinion, so this switch to a bearish sentiment could actually turn out to be a positive sign for Bitcoin. “As small traders sell off their coins as a reaction to this mild downswing, probabilities of a rebound are heightened while most people expect a further drop,” explained the analytics firm.

Though, it’s visible in the chart that the Positive/Negative Sentiment isn’t yet inside the “FUD” zone where a bearish mentality becomes pronounced enough for rebounds to become probable.

In some other news, the Bitcoin whales have seen their wallet count rise over the past year, as Santiment has highlighted in another X post.

From the chart, it’s apparent that there are now 20,229 wallets holdings at least 100 BTC (worth about $7.64 million). Compared to a year ago, this figure represents an increase of 11.2%. The analytics firm noted:

This is a significant long-term trend because wallets of at least this size (currently ~$7.7M or more) are often associated with whales, major investors, institutions, and highly capitalized long-term holders.

Bitcoin has declined to the $76,400 level following its pullback of more than 5% over the past week.