In recent times, the American regulatory war on crypto has intensified with lawmakers proposing their respective approaches. Notably, the media has also joined the club with their catching headlines attacking crypto companies.
Recently, Santiment, a blockchain analytics firm, measured one of its highest levels of fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) over the weekend. In its report, the firm pointed out that Twitter was the source of a lot of negative sentiment. The report stated:
Some bizarrely high levels of negative crypto sentiment have appeared this weekend, particularly here on Twitter.
The report’s bullish vs. bearish word comparison social trends indicator showed a massive spike over the weekend. Analysts opined that the surge in bearish sentiment and FUD was predominantly from Twitter. This is unsurprising since Twitter has become the industry’s de facto social media home in recent times.
Additionally, several notorious Twitter accounts such as “Mr. Whale” consistently trigger the crypto FUD to its huge follower base. Although this account mostly targets crypto companies such as Tether and Binance, the analytics firm noted that there was an “unusually high” amount of negative commentary about the market in recent times. The report noted:
It’s particularly interesting that #crypto crash has been a key-of-and-on trending hashtag on the platform, even though Bitcoin’s mild -5% pullback occurred more than three days ago.
Sources suggest that the $60 billion selloff that occurred last week was fuelled by factors involving the crypto bank Silvergate. Other renowned companies like Kraken and Paxos have also received negative attention from the authorities in recent times.
Furthermore, the Bitcoin fear and greed index has slipped back below 50 into neutral territory. The Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index measures the market sentiment of Bitcoin on a scale from 0 to 100, where a value of 0 means “extreme fear” and a value of 100 represents “extreme greed.”
There has been an ongoing regulator feud between the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the US regarding cryptocurrencies. Recently, the SEC has also been on the warpath targeting crypto companies and labeling the majority of assets as securities except for Bitcoin.
Mainstream media is contributing to the crypto negativity as it provides opportunities for salacious headlines. The anti-crypto industry Wall Street Journal has been attacking stablecoin issuer Tether in its latest report. The claim is that the firm faked banking documents however Tether executives refuted the allegations and called it a “ton of misinformation and inaccuracies.” Industry executives and experts pointed out that crypto FUD is nothing new, especially during bear markets.
However, it is important to note that despite the fear triggered by the prolonged bear market of 2022, the youngsters appeared enthusiastic about cryptocurrencies. In January, Todayq News reported a survey by eToro which stated that most retail investors are very interested in investing in digital assets despite what has been called the worst bear market in crypto history. About 76% of young retail investors between 18-34 felt positive or indifferent about the downtrend. In contrast, only 60% of older investors above 55 have a positive attitude toward the crypto market.