Data shows sentiment around Bitcoin and Ethereum has plummeted on social media, but XRP and other altcoins are just observing apathy.
Social Media Traders Have Turned Bearish On Bitcoin & Ethereum
In a new insight post, on-chain analytics firm Santiment has talked about how sentiment around cryptocurrencies has changed on social media following the latest market crash. The indicator of relevance here is the “Positive/Negative Sentiment,” which tells us how bullish sentiment compares against the bearish one on the major social media platforms.
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The metric works by going through social media posts/messages/threads to separate them into positive and negative using a machine-learning model. Once the posts have been divided, it counts up the number in each category and takes the ratio between them.
First, here is a chart that shows the trend in the Positive/Negative Sentiment for Bitcoin over the last few months:
As shown in the graph above, Bitcoin Positive/Negative Sentiment has recently plunged, suggesting bearish sentiment has risen on social media platforms. The current value of the indicator is the third lowest for the past six months. Interestingly, the two instances with lower levels coincided with local bottoms for the cryptocurrency.
This pattern of the asset going against the crowd opinion has actually been witnessed regularly throughout its history. Considering this, the shift to a negative sentiment on social media may turn out to be a bullish signal for the BTC price.
Bitcoin isn’t the only cryptocurrency that’s witnessing a surge in bearish sentiment right now. As Santiment has pointed out, Ethereum has also seen a similar trend in the Positive/Negative Sentiment.
In fact, the negative comments have been even more intense for Ethereum, as the current value is the second lowest for the last six months. “Only the flash crash back on October 10th, when Trump temporarily threatened 100% tariffs on China, saw a higher level of bearish vs. bullish comments,” noted the analytics firm.
Interestingly, while Bitcoin and Ethereum have seen this development, most other assets in the sector are showing a different trend. Below is a chart that shows how the Positive/Negative Sentiment currently looks for XRP, the coin ranked fourth by market cap.
From the graph, it’s apparent that the indicator is sitting at a neutral level for XRP, implying social media users aren’t leaning one way or the other, despite the volatility.
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“Unlike the top two marketcaps in crypto, XRP is showing what most other altcoins are showing… a surprising level of disinterest,” said Santiment. “It’s clear that most of retail has shifted their focus to just talking about BTC (and ETH, to a slightly lesser extent).”
BTC Price
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $102,600, down more than 9% over the last week.
The trend in the price of the coin over the last five days | Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView
Featured image from Dall-E, Santiment.net, chart from TradingView.com