TL;DR
- Bitcoin sentiment swung from deep fear on Monday to Santiment’s “ultra FOMO mode” by Thursday as BTC recovered from around $76,000 toward $80,000.
- Santiment warned the sentiment flip is now a caution signal, saying a breakout above $80,000 would look convincing if optimism cooled first.
- Derivatives activity and $223 million in ETF inflows on April 23 are now shaping the debate over whether this rally is overheating.
Bitcoin sentiment has swung from fear to euphoria in barely three days. What makes the shift so striking is not only its speed, but the fact that it arrived just as Bitcoin pushed back toward one of its most important resistance levels. Earlier in the week, Bitcoin had stalled near $76,000 and social commentary turned sharply negative. By Thursday, April 23, the mood had flipped into what Santiment described as “ultra FOMO mode,” even as the asset hovered around $77,500 and approached $80,000.
That matters because the same crowd psychology that often chases breakouts can also destabilize them. The latest warning is that enthusiasm has started to look less like confirmation and more like overheating. Santiment had flagged the earlier slide into FUD territory as a buy signal when pessimism was deepest. Now the firm is reading the opposite condition as a caution signal, arguing that a more durable move above $80,000 would look healthier if optimism cooled slightly before the breakout attempt became too crowded.
🤗 The Bitcoin crowd has swung from extreme pessimism (on Monday) to ultra FOMO mode (on Thursday).
Just as $BTC looked like it was going to freefall after an $80K rejection and FUD trickled in (a clear buy signal), prices quickly rallied to above $78.7K today.
Now that $80K is… pic.twitter.com/AsDSovpA95
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) April 23, 2026
A stronger price does not automatically mean stronger structure
The recent rebound has undeniable momentum behind it, but not everyone sees the foundation as equally convincing. One of the key concerns is that the latest leg higher may have leaned too heavily on derivatives activity instead of steady spot demand. During the move from roughly $76,000 to $79,400, Bitcoin open interest climbed from about $24.9 billion to $28 billion, while short liquidations across Bitcoin and Ethereum topped $1.1 billion. That structure can accelerate price gains quickly, but it can also leave the market vulnerable if follow-through from spot buyers does not keep pace.
At the same time, broader market flows are still providing support that traders cannot easily dismiss. Institutional demand continues to offer a more concrete counterweight to emotional excess, even as social sentiment runs hot. On April 23, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs pulled in $223 million in net inflows, with BlackRock’s IBIT accounting for $167.5 million of that total. IBIT has also attracted roughly $3 billion year to date. The result is a market caught between real capital inflows and increasingly overheated behavior, which is exactly why the next move above or below $80,000 may say more than the rally itself.
