Bitcoin sentiment index drops to ‘fear’ — its lowest score in 18 months

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index, which measures market sentiment for Bitcoin ( BTC ) and the broader cryptocurrency industry, has tanked to its lowest score in nearly 18 months.

The index  fell  21 points on June 24, reaching into the “Fear” zone — marking one of the biggest day-to-day drops in recent years.

It was last in the Fear zone (a score between 24 and 50) around seven weeks ago, May 3, but it hasn’t hit a score below 30 since Jan. 11, 2023, when Bitcoin was trading at $17,200 only two months after the collapse of crypto exchange FTX.

This time last week, the score was 74 in the “Greed” zone.

Bitcoin is currently trading at $60,300 after falling to a seven-week low on June 24.

Negative sentiment has come amid outflows from spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds — over $1 billion across the last 10 trading days, news that Mt. Gox could be preparing to sell $8.5 billion worth of Bitcoin to its creditors, while Germany started selling some of its Bitcoin reserves too.

However, an executive at cryptocurrency investment firm Galaxy Digital believes the market may be slightly overreacting to the Mt. Gox concerns.

Bitcoin miners have been selling off more Bitcoin than usual amid a tumbling network hashrate, which may have also contributed to weakening market sentiment.

Related: Can $60K BTC price support hold? 5 things to know in Bitcoin this week

The Crypto Fear Greed Index factors in market volatility (25%), trading volume (25%), Bitcoin’s dominance (10%) and trends (10%). It used to factor in surveys (15%) — however that metric is currently paused.

The score has mostly been trending downward since it notched a score of 90 “Extreme Greed” on March 5, when Bitcoin surpassed its previous all-time high price of $69,000 set back in November 2021.

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