This week, the crypto market’s Fear & Greed Index shifted dramatically to “fear,” reaching levels not seen since April, following a market sell-off that erased over $230 billion in just one day.
On Friday, CoinMarketCap’s Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which monitors volatility, market momentum, social media trends, and dominance metrics, dropped to a low of 28, indicating “fear” and edging nearer to “extreme fear.”
According to CoinMarketCap, data revealed that on Friday, the total crypto market capitalization fell to about $3.54 trillion, a 6% decline from $3.78 trillion the day before. This significant drop wiped out over $230 billion in sector value, marking one of the steepest single-day declines in recent months.
The Fear & Greed Index for traditional assets also decreased to 22, indicating extreme fear in the market. This drop followed a decline in US stocks on Thursday, attributed to credit market turmoil, regional banks’ exposure to bad loans, and escalating US-China trade tensions, causing jitters on Wall Street.
Leading crypto assets continue to decline
Recent data shows that major crypto assets have continued to slide over the past 24 hours as the broader market correction intensified.
Bitcoin (BTC) saw a nearly 6% drop to about $105,000, while Ether (ETH) fell almost 8% to approximately $3,700. Among large-cap altcoins, BNB (BNB) took the lead in losses with a nearly 12% decline, followed by Chainlink (LINK) at an 11% drop, and Cardano (ADA) with a 9% decrease.
Solana (SOL) and XRP (XRP) also fell by over 7%, extending a week-long slide that erased earlier double-digit gains this month.
On average, the largest non-stablecoin crypto assets decreased by about 8%–9% within the last 24 hours.
Despite last week’s market crash resulting in nearly $20 billion in liquidations, this week’s downturn witnessed significantly lower activity.
On Friday, CoinGlass reported that approximately $556 million worth of leveraged positions were liquidated across exchanges, a small fraction of last week’s total.
Of that, around $451 million stemmed from long positions, while $105 million was from short liquidations.
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NFTs, Memecoins, and ETFs respond to market crash
Beyond leading cryptocurrencies, other assets such as memecoins, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) also felt the impact of the recent market downturn.
Memecoins, which had shown slight signs of recovery this week, plummeted 33% within 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap. Prominent memecoin assets recorded declines ranging from 9% to 11% in the last 24 hours, while trading volumes remained robust at nearly $10 billion.
The NFT sector, which had bounced back from a previous $1.2 billion loss last week, saw its valuation fall below $5 billion again, a level not seen since July. Data from CoinGecko indicated that many blue-chip collections faced double-digit percentage decreases over the past 24 hours.
In addition, spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs reacted to the turmoil. On Thursday, spot Bitcoin ETFs experienced outflows exceeding $536 million, while spot Ether ETFs showed daily net outflows of over $56 million.
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