Remember that moment when the market is absolutely screaming, everyone you know is bragging about 10× gains, and some whale on Twitter posts a screenshot of a Lambo key with the caption “wen moon”? That, my friends, is peak greed. And according to one of the most powerful men ever to run a crypto exchange, that is exactly when you should be selling.
Fast forward to right now — Bitcoin just shed another five figures in a weekend, altcoins are bleeding double digits, and the Fear & Greed Index looks like it swallowed a bottle of despair. Perfect time to buy, right? At least that’s what the former Binance boss thinks.
The Tweet That Broke Crypto Twitter
Last Friday, while most of us were refreshing charts and questioning life choices, Changpeng Zhao decided it was the perfect moment to drop some timeless wisdom.
“Unpopular opinion, but it’s better to sell when there is maximum greed, and buy when there is maximum fear.”
— CZ, November 29 2025
Solid advice on paper. Warren Buffett has been saying “be fearful when others are greedy” for decades. The problem? A huge chunk of the community immediately smelled hypocrisy, and they weren’t exactly subtle about it.
“When Did You Ever Tell Us to Sell?”
The replies came in hot and heavy. One of the top quotes summed up the mood perfectly:
“You’ve literally never once said sell. Not during $69k, not during $100k memes, not ever. Suddenly at $86k you’re a contrarian sage?”
Another user went straight for the jugular:
“Maximum greed = you quietly listing another 50 shitcoins on Binance and pumping BNB. Maximum fear = you telling retail it’s a buying opportunity. Pattern recognized.”
Ouch. But honestly? Hard to argue with the historical pattern.
Why This Advice Is So Hard to Follow
Let’s be real for a second — buying fear and selling greed is the hardest thing to do in markets. I’ve been around crypto since 2016, and I still catch myself doing the exact opposite more often than I’d like to admit.
- At the top, your timeline is full of moon emojis and “this time is different.”
- Your small bag suddenly feels embarrassingly small compared to everyone else’s gains.
- Selling feels like leaving free money on the table.
- At the bottom, every headline screams “crypto is dead,” your portfolio is red, and buying feels like catching a falling knife.
We’re emotional creatures. The Fear & Greed Index isn’t just a cute widget — it’s literally measuring human psychology in real time. And right now it’s swinging like a pendulum on espresso.
A Quick Look at the Current Numbers
As I write this on December 1, Bitcoin is hovering just above $86,000 after rejecting $91,000 twice. Ethereum broke below $2,800. Solana, BNB, XRP — everything is down 7-12 % in the last seven days. The broader altcoin market looks like a crime scene.
The Fear & Greed Index? Sitting at 34 — officially “Fear” territory, after touching 85 (“Extreme Greed”) barely two weeks ago. That’s one of the fastest sentiment swings we’ve seen all cycle.
| Asset | Price | 7d Change | Sentiment Shift |
| Bitcoin | $86,236 | -5.3 % | Greed → Fear |
| Ethereum | $2,785 | -7.7 % | Extreme Greed → Fear |
| BNB | $822 | -7.4 % | Greed → Fear |
| Solana | $125 | -8.3 % | Extreme Greed → Fear |
Is CZ Actually Wrong?
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: he isn’t wrong. Selling at maximum greed and buying at maximum fear is objectively the highest-expectancy strategy in cyclical markets. The data backs it up over and over again.
Look at every single Bitcoin cycle:
- 2013 peak → 85 % crash → buy fear
- 2017 peak → 84 % crash → buy fear
- 2021 peak → 77 % crash → buy fear
- 2025… well, we’re in the middle of it.
The people who actually follow this rule — the ones quietly selling portions at $60k, $69k, $90k+ and buying the blood — are the ones who compound like crazy over a decade. Everyone else is just along for the emotional rollercoaster.
Why the Community Pushback Makes Sense
Still, you can’t really blame people for rolling their eyes. When the guy who ran the largest exchange on earth — an exchange that makes the majority of its money when retail is aping in at all-time highs — suddenly turns into a stoic contrarian, eyebrows are going to raise.
It’s the same reason people side-eye influencers who scream “have fun staying poor” at the top and then quietly accumulate at the bottom while telling everyone it’s still early. Actions speak louder than weekend philosophy tweets.
How to Actually Do It (Without Losing Your Mind)
If you’re tired of getting rekt by your own emotions, here are a few practical ways I’ve seen work — including some I use myself:
- DCA out at greed extremes — Set rules like “when Fear & Greed hits 80+, I take 10 % off the table every week.” No emotion required.
- Use on-chain data — Exchange inflows, realized profit/loss ratios, and MVRV Z-score tell you when the crowd is euphoric or suicidal.
- Write your rules when you’re calm — Literally write a trading plan when the market is boring. Then follow it like it’s gospel when things get crazy.
- Zoom out — Every single time Bitcoin has hit “extreme greed” in the past, a 20-50 % correction followed within months. Every single time.
Easier said than done, I know. But the traders who actually build real wealth in this space aren’t the ones posting rocket emojis. They’re the quiet ones executing boring plans while everyone else is busy arguing on Twitter.
Final Thoughts
CZ isn’t wrong about buying fear and selling greed. He’s just late to his own party — or at least that’s how it feels to a lot of people who watched Binance list endless altcoins while the market screamed “bubble.”
The irony? This pullback might actually be one of those “maximum fear” moments he’s talking about. Sentiment is trash, funding rates reset, leveraged longs got wrecked. Classic setup.
So maybe, just maybe, the real question isn’t whether CZ practices what he preaches. The real question is whether you will finally take your own advice when the next wave of greed hits.
Because it always does.
In the end, crypto doesn’t care about your feelings, your timeline bravado, or even CZ’s weekend wisdom. It only cares about what you actually do when the charts turn red and everyone is losing their minds.
Buy the fear. Sell the greed.
Or keep doing the opposite and wonder why the same cycle keeps happening.
Your choice.
