Bitcoin has climbed back above $70,000, but the mood across crypto remains deeply risk-off. On Feb. 8, the Crypto Fear and Greed Index from alternative.me stood at 7 out of 100, while CoinMarketCap’s version came in at 8 out of 100. Both readings sit in the “extreme fear” band. According to the report, CMC’s gauge had dropped even lower during the Feb. 5 sell-off, briefly touching 5.
Bitcoin recovered, but sentiment did not
Over the past several hours, bitcoin traded in a range of roughly $70,500 to $71,500. That rebound followed a sharp break on Feb. 5, when BTC fell into the $60,000 range and briefly hit $59,900 on some exchanges. Even with price action stabilizing, bearish sentiment has stayed in place, and some market participants have argued that bitcoin is already in a bear cycle rather than simply pausing after a fast run.
Alternative.me and CMC are both showing extreme fear
The alternative.me index has been running since 2018 and focuses on bitcoin. Its framework uses volatility, market momentum and volume, social media activity, bitcoin dominance, and Google Trends data to track sentiment. A reading of 7 places the market firmly in extreme fear, a level associated with heavy unease and defensive positioning.
The article points to June 2022 as a comparable episode, when the same index fell to 9 during the Terra collapse and the loss of its stablecoin peg. While the setup is not identical, the report notes that the stress seen in 2022 lines up closely with the volatility and market weakness recorded in February 2026.
CMC’s broader gauge is also near its lowest levels
CoinMarketCap’s index casts a wider net by tracking the top 10 cryptocurrencies, excluding stablecoins, rather than focusing only on bitcoin. Its model blends Volmex volatility indexes for bitcoin and ether, price momentum, proprietary social sentiment signals, derivatives data including Deribit’s put-call ratio, and market composition through the stablecoin supply ratio. The exact weighting is not disclosed.
Using the available history back to June 2023, the current CMC reading of 8 sits near the bottom of the chart’s range. The report adds that sentiment had largely been in the “neutral” to “fear” zones last month, then shifted decisively into “extreme fear” over the past week.
What the readings say about current positioning
Taken together, the two indexes describe a market marked by exhaustion and hesitation. The report says such depressed readings tend to appear when anxiety is widespread, conviction is thin, and traders are reacting defensively rather than building positions with confidence. It also notes that extreme fear does not directly predict bitcoin’s next move, but it does show how sensitive the market has become to even modest changes in price and momentum.