The crypto fear and greed index retreated slightly on Friday as traders adjusted to the new normal in the industry. It retreated to the greed zone of 74 after peaking at over 78 earlier this week. According to CoinMarketCap, the index peaked at the extreme greed area of 83 in December. 

The index retreated as Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Jesus Coin, Cardano, and Solana pulled back. Similarly, Bitcoin mining stocks like Marathon Digital, Riot Platforms, and Argo Blockchain continued to drop. At the same time, Memeinator, an upcoming meme coin continued to receive investments, as the total capital raised jumped to over $3.5 million.  

Why crypto fear and greed dropped

The fear and greed index is a popular gauge in the financial market that measures the two most important sentiments among participants. In most cases, it turns to the greed zone when cryptocurrencies are rising, as we have seen in the past few months.

It then retreats when the sentiment among participants worsens. This explains why the index is now pulling back. After Bitcoin surged to over $49,000 on Thursday, it has now retreated to $44,000. 

Other altcoins have also dropped. BNB token has plunged to $304 while Cardano, Avalanche, Dogecoin, and Polkadot have fallen by almost 1% in the past 24 hours. In all, the total market cap of all cryptocurrencies has dropped by over 3.2% in the past 24 hours to $1.81 trillion.

This price action was expected, especially among people with many experienced traders. It is known as buying the rumour and selling the news. It happens when an asset surges ahead of an important event and then exit when it happens. In this case, the event was the spot Bitcoin ETF. 

Still, more catalysts will push Bitcoin and other crypto prices higher. The most obvious catalyst is the upcoming Bitcoin halving, which will happen in April this year. In most cases, Bitcoin tends to rally ahead of the halving event.

The other catalyst is that the Federal Reserve is expected to start cutting interest rates later this year. 

Memeinator token sale surges

Meanwhile, Memeinator, an upcoming meme coin, is raising loads of money as investors bet on the next big thing. The developers have raised over $3.5 million from global investors. It has done that in the past 12 stages.

For starters, Memeinator’s team hopes to build a cryptocurrency that will rival the past meme coins like Pepe, Bonk, and Dogelon Mars. It hopes to do that by creating a community, embracing decentralization, and infusing it with artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

AI is one of the fastest-growing technologies in the world, as evidenced by the performance of the likes of ChatGPT and Anthropic. Additionally, Memeinator hopes to have real utility by incorporating concepts like gaming in its ecosystem.

Memeinator hopes to learn from the mistakes of the past meme coins that generated hype in their early days and then went silent. Some of these coins include the likes of Baby Doge and Dogelon Mars.

More By This Author: