Bitcoin is now in its longest-ever 'extreme fear' period

cointelegraph.com:

Bitcoin (BTC) may have avoided fresh losses since falling to $17,600 last month, but the sentiment is on the floor.

Now, one classic crypto market mood gauge is showing just how long and hard the average investor has suffered.

While crypto market sentiment was already "comparable to funeral" before the start of 2022, the subsequent price drawdown in Bitcoin and altcoins produced cold feet like never before.

This has now been quantified by the Crypto Fear & Greed Index, a tool that takes multiple sources into account to create an overall score of how the markets are feeling. 

As of July 15, Fear & Greed has spent 70 days in its lowest bracket — "extreme fear" — marking of a new bearish record.

The Index consists of five such brackets, with the others being "fear," "neutral," "greed" and "extreme greed."

A score below 25/100 on its normalized scare corresponds to "extreme greed," and it is that score zone that has characterized the past two months. The last time that the market was more optimistic than "extreme fear" was on May 5 — days before the Terra (LUNA) — now called Terra Classic (LUNC) — debacle.

Commenting on the data, Philip Swift, creator of on-chain analytics platform LookIntoBitcoin, noted that this "extreme fear" period is longer than even those surrounding the 2018 Bitcoin bear market and March 2020 cross-market crash.

Fear & Greed Index: we have now had the longest ever period of Extreme Fear...70days!!! Live chart: https://t.co/Jr5151zN7IPotential for a near-term reversal for #Bitcoin soon? pic.twitter.com/thyUtLeRP9

2022, despite its bearish overtones, has nonetheless not been without its exuberant phases. The last time that the Index was in its "greed" or "extreme greed" zone — which tends to suggest an