The crypto market’s Fear & Greed Index flipped sharply to “fear” this week, falling to levels last seen in April, as a market sell-off erased over $230 billion in a single day.
On Friday, CoinMarketCap’s Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which tracks volatility, market momentum, social media trends and dominance metrics, fell to a low of 28, which is within the “fear” category and is inching closer to “extreme fear.”
CoinMarketCap data showed that on Friday, the total crypto market capitalization dropped to about $3.54 trillion, a 6% drop from $3.78 trillion the previous day. This wiped out over $230 billion in value from the sector, marking one of the sharpest single-day declines in months.
The Fear & Greed Index for traditional assets also fell to 22, signaling extreme fear in the market, following US stocks closing lower on Thursday as the credit market turmoil, regional banks’ exposure to bad loans and US-China trade tensions spread jitters on Wall Street.
Top crypto assets continue to bleed
Data shows that major crypto assets extended their declines in the last 24 hours as the broader market correction deepened.
Bitcoin (BTC) fell nearly 6% to about $105,000, while Ether (ETH) dropped almost 8% to about $3,700. Among large-cap altcoins, BNB (BNB) led losses with a nearly 12% decline, followed by Chainlink (LINK) with an 11% drop and Cardano (ADA), which dropped 9%.
Solana (SOL) and XRP (XRP) also tumbled by over 7%, extending a week-long decline that erased double-digit gains accumulated earlier this month.
On average, the largest non-stablecoin crypto assets declined by about 8%–9% over the last 24 hours.
While last week’s market crash led to nearly $20 billion in liquidations, this week’s downturn saw significantly lower activity.
On Friday, data from CoinGlass showed that about $556 million worth of leveraged positions were wiped out across exchanges, a tiny fraction of last week’s figure.
From this amount, about $451 million came from long positions, while $105 million came from short liquidations.
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NFTs, Memecoins and ETFs react to market sell-off
Apart from top cryptocurrencies, other assets like memecoins, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were also affected by the recent crash.
Memecoins, which showed small signs of recovery this week, dropped 33% in 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap. Top memecoin assets experienced declines of 9%–11% over the last 24 hours, while trading volumes remained relatively high, at nearly $10 billion.
The NFT sector, which also rebounded from a $1.2 billion wipeout last week, erased its gains and dropped below a $5 billion valuation, a level last seen in July. CoinGecko data showed that a majority of blue-chip collections dropped double-digit percentages in the last 24 hours.
Meanwhile, spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs reacted to the crash. On Thursday, spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded outflows of over $536 million, while spot Ether ETFs showed daily net outflows of more than $56 million.
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