The Crypto Fear and Greed Index has entered "extreme greed" territory for the first time since late 2024, posting its highest reading since the 2024 cycle top.

The index, measured on Coinmarketcap, hit 81 late Sunday evening and remains there today, breaking above the green zone that starts at 80 — the threshold the gauge reserves for panicked buying and frothy conviction. It is a remarkable turnaround for a market that has spent the past year largely in "fear" territory, with occasional trips into "neutral" at best.

The speed of the move is especially noteworthy. A month ago, the same gauge sat at 36, squarely in "fear." A week ago, it read 41, barely neutral. It printed 81 on Sunday and has held there since — a 45-point climb in 30 days that erases nearly all of the caution that defined the first half of 2026, and the index's fastest sentiment swing of the year. It is also the fastest sentiment shift between two extremes, and the only move from extreme fear to extreme greed since Coinmarketcap began tracking the index.

Alternative.me, which has tracked crypto sentiment for a longer period, still places the index in "greed" mode under its own methodology — short of the extreme reading by 6 points — but the mood shift points in the same direction: traders are turning very bullish, extremely fast, mimicking a similar movement that occurred in 2021.

The gauge's 2026 low came on February 5, when it bottomed at 5, deep in "extreme fear," its lowest point of the year. The climb from that floor to this week's 81 is a round trip from total capitulation to full-throated greed inside six months — the kind of arc that usually rides a violent repricing in spot markets. Sentiment indicators like this do not move on their own; they tend to reflect what traders are already seeing in price, flows, and positioning.

The sentiment flip tracks a Bitcoin run that has left the rest of the market behind. Bitcoin gained roughly 24% in a week while the broader crypto market grew by less, a mismatch visible in Bitcoin's rising share of the total crypto market.

The breakout traces to last Wednesday, when the U.S. Treasury said it would double its long-bond buybacks — purchases of the government's own debt intended to prop up demand — from $2 billion to $4 billion per operation starting September 9, weakening the dollar and nudging investors toward Bitcoin as an inflation hedge.

The same setup forced bearish traders to buy back at a loss. As Bitcoin broke $70,000, a short squeeze liquidated more than $4 billion in crypto shorts over two to three days. Bitcoin ETFs logged their biggest single day of inflows since May, and Ethereum and Bitcoin ETFs together pulled in roughly $2.3 billion in assets, adding another visible sign that capital was moving quickly into the market.