Retail investors are closely watching the crypto market for signs it has bottomed so they can decide when to buy more assets, according to crypto sentiment platform Santiment. The firm says retail traders are “meta‑analyzing” — looking for evidence that others are quitting so they can time their own entries, behavior that often shows up near market bottoms.
Santiment links this to the growing use of the term “capitulation” on social media. The word, which describes investors selling out of fear the market won’t recover, has become a top trend as traders attempt to gauge whether selling pressure has peaked. Santiment warns that if everyone waits for a clear capitulation signal, the actual bottom may already have occurred while they waited.
Google Trends data show searches for “crypto capitulation” jumped from a score of 11 to 58 between the weeks ending Feb. 1 and Feb. 8, underscoring heightened retail interest. Historically, investors are cautious about calling a bottom too soon because prices can continue to fall even after many believe the worst is over.
Market analysts have offered cautionary perspectives. Caleb Franzen noted that while “capitulation” is the word of the week, bear markets can experience multiple capitulation events. Other analysts echoed skepticism that recent moves represent a definitive cycle bottom: Ted said a recent dump “looks like capitulation, but it’s not the cycle bottom,” and CryptoGoos said true Bitcoin capitulation has not yet occurred.
Bitcoin’s price dipped as low as $60,000 on Thursday — a level not seen since October 2024 — amid the ongoing downtrend. Over the past 30 days, Bitcoin has fallen about 24.27% and was trading at $68,970 at the time of publication, according to CoinMarketCap. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index fell further into “Extreme Fear,” registering a score of 7, indicating strong investor caution.
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