Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)

FOMO describes the anxious urge to jump into a rising cryptocurrency because everyone else seems to be profiting, often at exactly the wrong moment: near a local or cycle price top.

The impulse is amplified by crypto's around-the-clock trading and its dependence on social platforms like X, Reddit, and Telegram, where screenshots of overnight gains spread faster than any due diligence. Watching a coin double or triple in days can override an investor's original research and risk plan, pushing them to ape into a position without checking the project's fundamentals, team, or use case.

FOMO has fueled some of crypto's sharpest price cycles, from the 2017 altcoin mania to the memecoin and NFT surges of the 2021 bull run. It is also a favorite tool for scammers: the SQUID token, tied to the Netflix show Squid Game, surged from a fraction of a cent to thousands of dollars within days in late 2021 purely on social media hype, before its creators pulled all liquidity and the price collapsed to near zero within minutes, leaving latecomers holding worthless tokens.

Traders who recognize FOMO in themselves try to counter it with pre-set entry rules, dollar-cost averaging, or simply stepping away from social media during volatile rallies. Its emotional opposite, Joy of Missing Out (JOMO), describes the relief some investors feel after deliberately sitting out a speculative rush rather than chasing it.