The Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index has extreme fear of 20 over 14 days. Retailers withdraw as crypto sentiment falls to bear market levels.
Investor confidence is still bleeding in the crypto market. Sentiment tracking does not give a relief in sight. The reading on Friday proved that there is still extreme fear in digital assets.
Crypto Fear & Greed Index decreased by three points to 20 on December 26. This period of two weeks commenced on December 13. It is one of the longest streaks of extreme fear since the index was started in February 2018.
Market Carnage Started in October
The sentiment has fallen since the beginning of October. The tariff fears between the US and China wiped out almost $500 billion of the crypto markets on October 10. The index relies on volatility, trading volume, social media sentiment, trends and Bitcoin dominance to derive scores.
Jeff Mei, the chief operating officer of BTSE, cautioned on possible further declines. He said that Bitcoin would drop to $70,000 in case the Federal Reserve stops reducing the rates. The Fed policy uncertainty is a heavy burden on investor expectations by early 2026.
CoinGecko data show that Bitcoin is currently at the price of 88650. It is almost 30 per cent lower than its all-time high of $126,080, which it hit on October 6. This index score is lower than that found when FTX collapsed in November 2022.
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Retail Investors Exit Stage Left
Alphractal, a data analytics platform, reported large drops on Saturday. Google crypto search is plummeting. Wikipedia drops plunged dramatically. There was a reduction in internet forum discourse of digital assets.
Alphractal observed that crypto social volume was back to bear market levels. In December 2025, retail investors are discouraged, disengaged, and they seem to be largely out of the crypto market.
The pullback in November was the fault of crypto-native retail, according to Matt Hougan, the chief investment officer of Bitwise. He went on to explain that these investors had to endure several setbacks. Crashes of FTX, memecoin crashes and absent altcoin seasons shattered their spirit.
Crypto native retail is dead, they got punched by FTX, Hougan said. The memecoin fiasco crushed them. The altcoin season failed to come in, which was a blow to them.
Another blow was the liquidation of October 10. A large number of crypto-native investors responded to the present market cycle by sitting out.
Patterns of behaviour of traditional finance retail investors differ. According to Hougan, inflows into spot crypto exchange-traded funds are robust. Hougan elaborated that Traditional retail, the kind that my uncle is, is transitioning to crypto. Bitcoin ETFs in the US received inflows amounting to over 25 bn in 2025, even though Bitcoin recorded a 5 per cent loss in the year to date.
Source: https://www.livebitcoinnews.com/crypto-fear-grips-market-for-two-straight-weeks/
