Markets
What Is the Lowest Fear and Greed Score?
Quick answer
The lowest possible Fear and Greed score is 0, the bottom of the scale and deepest Extreme Fear, where the crowd is maximally fearful. The index does reach the low end: the CFGI equity score fell to 3 on 8 April 2025, and crypto dropped to 17 in the Terra collapse of May 2022. What matters is the meaning, a very low reading reflects panic and capitulation, conditions that have historically sat closer to bottoms than to the start of declines. This is education, not financial advice.
CFGI data
CFGI data shows fear runs deeper than greed. The equity score reaching 3 on 8 April 2025, near the very floor, is a concrete example, and such lows have historically been closer to turning points than to the beginning of a fall.
Source: CFGI dataset, 2021 to June 2026.
Key takeaways
- The lowest possible score is 0, deepest Extreme Fear.
- CFGI’s equity score hit 3; crypto fell to 17 in the Terra crash.
- Fear runs deeper than greed, so lows are more extreme.
- Very low readings reflect panic and capitulation.
- Such lows have historically sat closer to bottoms.
What the Bottom of the Scale Means
A score of 0 is the floor: maximum Extreme Fear, the crowd at peak panic. The index genuinely reaches this end, the CFGI equity score fell to 3 on 8 April 2025, just above the floor. Unlike the greed extreme, the fear extreme is reached more readily, because fear arrives fast and deep. The interpretation is the capitulation story: a very low reading means selling has reached an emotional peak, which has historically been closer to a bottom than to the start of a decline, though never guaranteed.
How Low Has It Actually Gone?
In practice, the score rarely touches a literal 0, because even at the depths of a panic some buyers remain and a few of the underlying signals stay off their absolute floor. What it does reach is the single digits and the high teens, which in sentiment terms is effectively "as low as it gets". Two concrete CFGI marks stand out. The equity score fell to 3 on 8 April 2025, during a sharp risk-off shock, about as deep as the reading has ever gone. And the crypto score dropped to 17 in May 2022, as the Terra/LUNA collapse sent fear cascading through the whole asset class. In both cases the reading was screaming maximum fear, and in both cases those moments, in hindsight, sat much closer to a low than to the start of fresh declines.
| Market | Low | Around |
|---|---|---|
| Equities | 3 | 8 April 2025 risk-off shock |
| Crypto | 17 | May 2022 Terra/LUNA collapse |
Notable CFGI lows.
Why Fear Runs Deeper Than Greed
A striking pattern in the data is that the fear extreme is reached more readily, and more deeply, than the greed extreme. This is the fingerprint of loss aversion, the well-documented quirk that the pain of a loss is felt about twice as intensely as the pleasure of an equivalent gain. Fear is a sharper, more urgent emotion than greed: it arrives suddenly and drives people to act fast, so the score can plunge into the single digits in days. Greed, by contrast, builds slowly and rarely reaches the same intensity, which is why the equity score has fallen to 3 but, over the same period, topped out only at 83. The low end of the scale is simply visited more often, and more violently, than the high end.
Fear Is the Sharper Emotion
Because losses hurt about twice as much as equivalent gains feel good, the score plunges into deep fear faster and more often than it climbs into extreme greed. The lows are the more dramatic end of the scale.
Reading a Low Score
A low score is not an automatic buy, but it is a flag. The closer the index sits to the floor, the more one-sided the selling, and the fewer sellers remain to push prices lower, which is the contrarian logic behind watching the fear extreme, the mirror of watching the greed extreme. The deeper the reading, the more worth paying attention it becomes, since the most extreme lows have historically clustered nearest to major bottoms. The crucial caveat is that "historically closer to a bottom" is not "guaranteed to be the bottom": a market can stay fearful, and keep falling, for a while yet. A low score sharpens the question, it tells you the crowd is in maximum pain, but it never removes the risk or promises the turn. The disciplined way to use it is to treat a deep low as a reason to look harder for value and to resist joining the panic, while sizing any action for the real possibility that the bottom has not yet arrived. The signal is in the extreme, not in any single reading, and it rewards patience over precision.
Fear and Greed Index, live
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How close to the floor is the crowd now?
Frequently asked questions
What is the lowest Fear and Greed score?
The minimum is 0, the bottom of the scale and deepest Extreme Fear. In practice the score rarely touches a literal 0; CFGI’s equity score hit 3 on 8 April 2025, and crypto fell to 17 in the May 2022 Terra collapse.
Why does fear run deeper than greed?
Because of loss aversion: the pain of a loss is felt about twice as intensely as an equivalent gain. Fear arrives fast and urgent, so the score plunges into the single digits, while greed builds slowly. The equity score reached 3 but only topped out at 83.
Does a low score mean buy?
Not automatically. A very low reading reflects panic and capitulation, which has historically sat closer to bottoms than to the start of declines, but it is a contrarian flag, not a guarantee, a market can stay fearful and keep falling.
How low does the score actually go?
Rarely a literal 0, because some buyers always remain, but into the single digits and high teens in real panics. The CFGI equity 3 and crypto 17 are concrete examples of "about as low as it gets". This is education, not financial advice.
Lucas, CFGI Research
Lucas is the founder of CFGI and leads its research. He built the platform that scores Fear and Greed across 100+ crypto assets and the equity market from a 0 to 100, 10-indicator model, and has tracked crowd emotion through multiple full crypto and equity cycles. He writes about market sentiment, behavioural finance and how emotion shapes price.
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This article is educational and is not financial advice. Crypto and equities are volatile and you can lose money. See our disclaimer.