Ether traders on social media are more optimistic after the token’s price saw a slight bump on Thursday, even as the rest of the crypto market remained fearful amid a wider downturn.

The uptick in bullish comments on social media was sparked after Ether (ETH) nearly reached $3,500 on Thursday, which traders interpreted as a positive sign that the token was back on track, market intelligence platform Santiment said in an X post. 

On average, Santiment recorded 2.7 bullish comments for every one bearish comment on Ether, which was the highest positive bias since July.

“Ethereum traders have quickly pivoted from being extremely bearish to extreme bullish,” Santiment said, adding that when ETH “nearly rebounded to $3,500 yesterday, the crowd took it as a cue that the asset was back in business.” 

Ether traders were encouraged by a price bounce and adopted a more bullish outlook as a result. Source: Santiment

Ether has traded between $3,251 and $3,451 over the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko, and was trading at $3,323 as of early Friday.

FOMO could be more a hindrance than help

However, Santiment thinks the increased positivity around Ether might ultimately be a negative as “prices historically move the opposite direction of crowd expectations.”

On Tuesday, the platform recorded an average of 0.86 bullish comments for every bearish comment when Ether was trading at $3,700, the second-highest negative market bias for the token since April.

“Historically, we want to see continued FUD [fear, uncertainty and doubt] like Ether was having on Tuesday,” Santiment said, adding that a “sell-off helped fuel the rally the past couple days,” and traders’ fear of missing out, or FOMO, “can now halt it.”

Source: Santiment

Santiment added that when traders “slow their expectations of a quick return,” to $4,000 and when “bullish sentiment calms down again, that will be your true buy signal.”

The rest of the crypto market still fearful

Sentiment in the rest of the crypto market remains fearful, as the wider market continued to slump, which analysts have attributed to trade tensions between the US and China, as well as other macroeconomic factors.

Related: ETH price drop to $3K sets stage for $7B short squeeze if crypto market recovery holds

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which tracks overall market sentiment, returned a rating of 24 out of 100 on Friday, marking “Extreme Fear” after returning an average rating of “fear” over the previous week.

The index had dropped by 50% on Tuesday to 21 points, its lowest in nearly seven months, after Bitcoin (BTC) briefly fell below $106,000 for the first time in over three weeks.

Meanwhile, Samson Mow, the founder of Bitcoin technology infrastructure company Jan3, has been arguing in a series of bullish X posts that the Bitcoin bull run is yet to begin, with plenty of upside on the horizon. 

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