Altseason Incoming? Traders Watch Crypto Fear and Greed Index for Bullish Signals

Market sentiment flashes green as altcoins gather momentum.

Reading the emotional pulse

Traders scrutinize the Fear and Greed Index like tarot cards—because why trust fundamentals when you can follow crowd psychology? The index recently jumped from 'extreme fear' to 'greed' territory, triggering algorithmic buys across exchanges.

Altcoin accumulation patterns

Whales accumulate mid-cap tokens while retail sleeps. Ethereum alternatives show unusual volume spikes—Chainlink's oracle networks hit record activity while Polkadot parachains secure major institutional backing.

Liquidity rotates from Bitcoin

BTC dominance dips below 45% as capital floods into altcoin markets. DeFi tokens outperform—Uniswap's V4 upgrade speculation fuels 30% weekly gains despite zero revenue changes.

Historical cycles suggest imminent breakout

Previous altseasons followed similar sentiment shifts. This time feels different though—maybe because Wall Street finally learned what 'HODL' means while still mispronouncing Dogecoin.

Whether this becomes the real deal or just another 'number go up' illusion depends on whether traders remember to take profits before the inevitable 'extreme greed' correction.

Key Takeaways

The fall in Bitcoin Dominance promised an altcoin season, but the Crypto Fear and Greed Index was still neutral. This meant that market-wide rallies will need time to establish themselves.

The crypto market witnessed altcoins making increased gains compared to Bitcoin [BTC] in recent weeks. This is a routine development when Bitcoin consolidates and altcoins catch up during a bullish market phase.

Source: Blockchain Center

However, this routine scenario does not last more than a few days, which is why a proper altcoin season is rare.

The last time we saw one was toward the end of 2024, as the altcoin index demonstrates. At press time, the index reading was at 61, the highest it has been in 2025.

According to the index above, an altcoin season is in place when 75% of the top 50 coins by market cap perform better than bitcoin over 90 days.

Crypto Fear and Greed Index highlights neutral sentiment

Source: Alternative.me

Although capital FLOW appeared to be stronger into the altcoins, the market-wide sentiment was not enthusiastic. The volatility of Bitcoin since mid-July has muted market expectations in the short term.

This led to a faltering of the crypto Fear and Greed Index. Its reading was 50 at the time of writing, a neutral bias. Last month, the reading of 74 reflected greedy conditions.

This meant that there is room for the market to go higher. However, it does not guarantee an immediate recovery.

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index only showed that the market and Bitcoin were likely not overextended and euphoric.

Source: BTC.D on TradingView

In a post on CryptoQuant, analyst Ibrahim pointed out that an altseason has begun. This claim was based on the Bitcoin Dominance’s drop below the 60% level, a key support zone on the weekly timeframe.

AMBCrypto concurred that altcoins likely won’t go to the moon immediately, as this was the weekly timeframe. Moreover, the 55.36% level was also a key level that BTC.D needs to drop below.

At the time of writing, it was possible that Bitcoin WOULD recover and seize control of capital flows, which could see the Bitcoin Dominance bounce higher.

This is a good thing for altcoins – the higher Bitcoin can go, the more capital that could Flow into altcoins later on to fuel the altseason.

Investors should be aware that conditions seem to be ripening for an altcoin season in Q4 2025, but patience is necessary in the coming weeks.