Crypto fear and greed index: how it's calculated and used

A crypto fear and greed index is a single number from 0 to 100 that sums up how fearful or greedy the market is right now. Low numbers mean people are selling and paying to be short; high numbers mean prices are rising broadly and traders are paying up to be long. sasa's Market Fear & Greed is calculated from Hyperliquid's markets using four ingredients and a published formula, so you can see exactly why it reads what it reads. It lives on the Data page, refreshes every 15 seconds, and keeps a 30-day history.

What a fear and greed index is for

Markets swing between panic and euphoria, and in the moment it's hard to tell how stretched things are. An index gives you a fixed scale: is today more fearful than last week? Is the mood at an extreme, or just mildly positive? It doesn't predict price. It describes positioning and momentum in a way you can compare over time.

How sasa's Market Fear & Greed is calculated

The score uses four parts. Each is first turned into a number between 0 and 1, then the four are weighted and added up, and the result is multiplied by 100.

1. Breadth, weight 30%. The share of the 50 busiest markets that are up over 24 hours, with bigger markets counting more. If most of the market is green, this is close to 1.
2. Bitcoin's 24h move, weight 25%. A fall of 8% maps to 0, a rise of 8% maps to 1, and 0% sits in the middle at 0.5.
3. Average move of the 50 busiest markets, volume-weighted, weight 20%. A fall of 10% maps to 0 and a rise of 10% maps to 1.
4. Funding, weight 25%. The volume-weighted funding rate expressed as a year's worth. Minus 20% a year maps to 0, plus 40% a year maps to 1. About plus 10% a year is normal, which sits at 0.5.

Here is a worked example with made-up numbers. Say 60% of the market by size is up on the day, so breadth is 0.60. Bitcoin is up 2%, which is (2 + 8) / 16 = 0.625. The average market is up 1%, which is (1 + 10) / 20 = 0.55. Funding is a normal 10% a year, which is (10 + 20) / 60 = 0.50.

The score is 100 x (0.30 x 0.60 + 0.25 x 0.625 + 0.20 x 0.55 + 0.25 x 0.50) = 100 x (0.18 + 0.156 + 0.11 + 0.125) = about 57. That lands just inside Greed.

The zones

• 0 to 24: Extreme fear. Broad selling, Bitcoin down hard, funding low or negative.
• 25 to 44: Fear. More red than green and little appetite to pay for longs.
• 45 to 55: Neutral. No strong lean either way.
• 56 to 75: Greed. Most markets up and traders willing to pay above-normal funding to stay long.
• 76 to 100: Extreme greed. Wide rallies and expensive leverage on the long side.

History: Yesterday, Last week, Last month

One reading per hour is saved, which builds a 30-day history line on the page, plus three quick comparisons: Yesterday, Last week and Last month. Direction often matters more than the level. A score of 40 that was 15 a week ago means fear is fading. A score of 40 that was 70 a week ago means a sharp cooling.

How to use it

The common approach is contrarian. When fear is extreme, the people who wanted to sell have often sold, shorts are paying to hold, and it takes less buying to move price up. When greed is extreme, longs are crowded and paying heavy funding, so a small drop can trigger a chain of liquidations. That is the idea behind the old line about being greedy when others are fearful.

In practice, use it as a check on yourself. If you're about to open a leveraged long and the score reads 85 with funding near the top of its range, you are buying into a crowded trade and paying a lot to hold it. If you are panicking during a 15 reading, it's worth remembering everyone else is too. Pair it with the other data on the page: funding rates by market, open interest and what the top traders are doing in Whale moves.

Reading it with the Right now panel

Next to the score, the Data page has a Right now panel: Bitcoin and Ethereum price and 24h move, total open positions, how much was traded in the last 24 hours, average funding as a year's worth, and the number of markets. Use it to see which part is driving the score. If the score jumped from 50 to 70 while average funding stayed near 10% a year, the jump came from prices. If prices barely moved but average funding climbed to 35% a year, traders are piling into longs, which is the more fragile kind of greed.

The Movers section helps too. If the market is in Greed but the up-most list is dominated by small coins while Bitcoin is flat, the mood is speculative rather than broad.

Limits

• It only reads Hyperliquid's markets. That is a large, liquid perpetuals venue, but it is not the whole crypto market.
• The price parts look back 24 hours. A crash that happened 25 hours ago no longer counts.
• Extremes can last. A market can stay in Extreme greed for weeks during a strong trend, and shorting it just because the number is high has hurt many traders.
• It describes mood, not value. A score tells you nothing about whether a specific coin is cheap.

Nothing here is financial advice. If you trade with leverage, including on sasa's Futures page, a sudden move can liquidate your whole position whatever the index says.