Bitcoin Traders Fearful For First Time Since October: Buying Signal?

Data shows the sentiment among Bitcoin traders has plunged into the fear territory following the crash in the cryptocurrency’s price.

The “Fear & Greed Index” refers to an indicator devised by Alternative that tells us about the average sentiment that’s currently present in the Bitcoin and wider cryptocurrency markets.

This metric makes use of a numerical scale that runs from zero to hundred for representing the market mentality. All values above the 53 mark correlate to the investors sharing a sentiment of greed, while those under 47 suggest the presence of fear in the sector. The region in-between these cutoffs corresponds to a net neutral sentiment.

Besides these three main regions, there are also two special zones known as the extreme fear and extreme greed. The former occurs below 25 and the latter above 75.

Now, here is how the latest market sentiment has looked according to the Bitcoin Fear & Greed Index:

As is visible above, the indicator has a value of 44, which suggests the traders in the sector are being fearful at the moment. This is a drastic change from how the market has been recently, as the below chart displays.

On the 31st of last month, the Bitcoin Fear & Greed Index had a value of 76, meaning that the market sentiment was inside the extreme greed territory. Just three days later, the trader’s opinion has completely flipped.

The rapid deterioration in sentiment is a result of the bearish price action that the asset has witnessed this month, which has culminated in a crash during the past day. If history is to go by, though, the skepticism that has developed among the investors may actually be a positive sign for BTC’s price.

Bitcoin and other digital assets often tend to move in a direction that’s opposite to what the crowd is expecting. The probability of such a contrary move taking place only rises the stronger the investors’ belief becomes.

Extreme greed and extreme fear are where this likelihood is the strongest, so major tops and bottoms have historically formed when the Fear & Greed Index has been in these regions. The top last month, for instance, also occurred alongside extreme greed.

Traders who follow an investing philosophy called contrarian trading exploit this fact to time their moves. Warren Buffet‘s famous quote sums up the idea: “Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.”

While the market sentiment hasn’t quite worsened into extreme fear yet, the fact that the metric is at its lowest value since October could still be a sign that a contrarian trader may be looking for. It now remains to be seen whether the current level of fear would be enough for Bitcoin to bottom out, or if a further drop will happen first.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is floating around $95,200, down around 4% in the last 24 hours.