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The recent downturn has affected market sentiment. Per trader Ali Charts on X, the Fear and Greed Index has entered into fear for the first time since October last year.
This negative market sentiment could fuel bearish trends if traders choose to panic sell. Additionally, it could affect the market demand if buyers become hesitant, leading to consolidation and failed recoveries.
Altcoin & Meme Coin Bloodbath Drives Market into Fear
Despite Bitcoin’s drop below the psychological level of $100,000, the king coin’s losses have been minimal compared to altcoins. This has seen Bitcoin’s market dominance surging past 60%.
At the same time, Ethereum’s market dominance continues to steadily decline, falling to below 11%. This follows ETH’s 17% drop in just one week, at the same time. ETH/BTC had declined to range lows of 0.278 at press time.
 
Meme coins have also not been spared from the volatility after their total market capitalization dropped to $68 billion, the lowest level in three months. The meme coin fear and greed index has also declined to 27, indicating that meme coin traders are in fear.
In just one week, the largest meme coin, Dogecoin (DOGE), has declined by 25%, while Shiba Inu (SHIB) is down by 20%. PEPE (PEPE) and dogwifhat (WIF) have also dropped by 29% and 38%, respectively.
These widespread losses are behind the decline in trader sentiment. Moreover, if the market fails to post a recovery, it could result in further losses if traders begin to sell to minimize their losses.
Institutional Interest Remains Constant
Despite the weak demand for cryptocurrencies from retail traders, institutional interest has remained notably high. Data from SoSoValue shows that the total weekly inflows to Ethereum have surged to $420M, marking the highest weekly level since late December.
However, despite these inflows, JPMorgan analysts noted that many institutional traders remained hesitant to trade cryptocurrencies this year. Moreover, the percentage of investors willing to invest in crypto assets has declined from 78% to 71%.
The waning interest comes despite a friendlier crypto regulatory framework in the United States under the Trump administration and the resignation of the chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler.
