Crypto market fear rises as Bitcoin drops after Trump tariffs

Crypto market fear index hits 6-month low

The crypto market fear index has reached its lowest level in nearly six months after US President Donald Trump announced new 100% tariffs on China.

According to the latest update from the Crypto Fear & Greed Index, market sentiment fell to a “Fear” level of 27, a sharp drop of 37 points from Friday’s “Greed” reading of 64.

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index posted a “Greed” score of 71 when Bitcoin reached new highs on Monday. Source: Alternative.me

Bitcoin also briefly declined to $102,000 on the Binance perpetual futures pair following Trump’s announcement. Over the past 24 hours, around $19.27 billion worth of crypto positions have been liquidated, data from CoinGlass shows.

Analysts see contrarian signal in crypto market fear

Bitwise’s European head of research, Andre Dragosch, noted on Friday that the firm’s intraday Sentiment Index “generated a strong contrarian buying signal.”

“The index reached an intraday low of -2.8 standard deviations, its lowest point since the ‘Yen Carry Trade Unwind’ in mid-2024,” Dragosch said in an X post.

Bitwise’s intraday cryptoasset sentiment index is flashing a “strong contrarian buying signal.” Source: Andre Dragosch

The last time the crypto market fear index reached such low levels was on April 16, when Bitcoin fell to $77,000 amid escalating trade tension concerns. Earlier this week, however, the Index reflected “Greed” territory as Bitcoin touched new highs of $125,100.

Bitcoin highs fail to spark euphoria

Santiment analyst Brian Quinlivan said Bitcoin’s latest all-time highs did not trigger the usual excitement among traders.

“It was like a modest, run-of-the-mill reaction from the crypto audience,” Quinlivan told the Thinking Crypto podcast. He noted that social media activity showed fewer bullish comments despite Bitcoin’s rise to $125,100 on Monday.

“It’s not nearly as euphoric as some of these previous ones,” he added.