Key Highlights:
- FOMO trading is caused by social hype and causes prices of the tokens to surge.
- According to a survey, 57% of people act on social FOMO as per 2025 surveys.
- There are various strategies through which FOMO trading can be used to make profit within the crypto market.
In the world of crypto, one emotion can move prices faster than anything else (logic for that matter of fact). This emotion is FOMO or Fear of Missing Out.
Imagine that Bitcoin surges and there is a 20% increase overnight. Social media gets all cluttered with people celebrating profits and this incident is everywhere on the internet. When you read all of this, a thought pops in your head “What if I miss this chance?” and you act on it by buying Bitcoin quickly without giving it much of a thought. That’s exactly what FOMO trading is.
So basically, FOMO has been here since forever, and it is a rocket fuel that launched fortunes and wiped out portfolios since the beginning of time.
What is FOMO Trading?
FOMO trading is nothing but an event when investors jump onto an asset not because it has strong fundamentals but because the price of the token is rising and others are easily making profits.
When you look at the situation from a distance, it definitely feels like opportunity but it is actually nothing but anxiety. The thought is simple “Everyone else is profiting and I do not want to miss this out.”
In crypto, this usually happens during altcoin rallies or big DeFi hype waves. Prices move fast, social media gets louder than it needs to be and people rush in without having a look at the basics like the token supply, white paper, utility or risks.
One of the best examples of such trading would be Dogecoin. In 2021, many people bought dogecoin near its peak just because it was trending everywhere, then there was tech mogul Elon Musk talking and posting about the coin on X, which surged the price of the token even more. All of this only to watch it crash soon after.
Why Know FOMO Now? It’s More Popular Than Ever
As of now, it is necessary to understand FOMO trading in 2026 because being aware will save you from great losses in the future. Crypto as we all know is super volatile and with real-world assets being tokenized, AI coins trending, there always seems to be a new “moonshot” and the opportunities seem to be overflowing.
A 2025 Empower survey found that 57% of Americans make financial decisions influenced by social media lifestyles. Many of the crypto community members have also agreed that they spend or invest purely because of FOMO.
It is also a known fact that in today’s time, it is extremely easy to go watch price rise and fall in real time. Then there are platforms like X where there is Crypto Twitter, a community on X where traders, analysts, influencers, builders and meme accounts all post about the markets, which is also responsible for creating hype on the social media platform. Moreover, in the last few months, geopolitical shifts and macro events have also greatly amplified urgency within the crypto market.
The problem however here is that when you enter late you usually buy the coin at its peak and by the time you invest in it, people start taking profits and exiting. Recognizing FOMO helps you slow down, stay disciplined and avoid getting trapped in crowded trades.
How Investors Capitalize on FOMO
However, as risky as it is, smart investors do not ignore FOMO trading, they use it instead. When hype builds around platforms such as X, prices often rise quickly as the traders come rushing in. Experienced traders position themselves before or early in that hype cycle. Some of the ways these investors make profits have been listed below:
Front Running Momentum: In this case, what traders do is that they scan platforms like DexScreener for early volume spikes before a token actually creates a hype on social media. If a small-cap coin starts printing higher highs with rising liquidity, investors get in at this point. The thing here is that when the investors get in, it’s not because the token has pumped 5x but it is because they know that FOMO will push it 2x more.
Riding Social Sentiment Waves: There are tools such as LunarCrush, which tracks social mentions and engagement spikes. So when the attention to a certain coin or token increases faster than the price, that gap indicates the incoming retail flow.
Similarly, there are Arkham Intelligence leaderboards through which traders can watch high-performing wallets. If a known momentum trader starts accumulating, copy-trade volume also follows suit. Basically, the idea is not blindly copying but spotting where herd behaviour might take place.
Whale Tracking (with Filters): Platforms like Nansen tag so-called “smart money” wallets. Some traders constantly follow what these wallets buy, which tokens they buy early, expecting that once others also notice retail investors will also hop on the wagon and push the price higher. Moreover, they also check holder distribution. If the supply is concentrated, they know exits can be brutal.
Selling In Euphoria: This is the exact part which most retail miss. When price goes vertical, engagement explodes, and influencers post profit screenshots, disciplined traders scale out. FOMO buyers provide liquidity. Experienced traders provide supply.
Structured Rules to Avoid Becoming the Exit Liquidity: Disciplined traders set clear rules, like buying only after a small pullback and then starting with just 1% of their portfolio. Some use prop firm setups like Black Eagle Capital so that these traders can stay disciplined and limit emotional trades.
Riding FOMO the Smart Way
According to a recent post by Arkham Intelligence, a trader on change platform, made a big move today, February 17, 2026. The trader put $700,000 in $VVV, and now it’s worth nearly $1 million, a profit of $430,000. He tweeted, “This might be the one… real product outside the crypto bubble.”
TOP FOMO TRADER NOW HAS $1 MILLION@changefomo is now at the top of the FOMO leaderboards, after spending over $700K buying $VVV. He now holds almost $1 MILLION in this coin – and is up $430K in total PnL.
He wrote, “ngl this might be the one…real product with penetration… pic.twitter.com/PF4SWfoWhc
— Arkham (@arkham) February 17, 2026
$VVV is a token connecting traditional finance and DeFi. Early buyers like him got in before the crypto community noticed. Once the hype hit, many retail traders rushed in, but buying late is risky. Liquidity and development are strong, but latecomers could lose money.
Conclusion
FOMO trading can make big gains tempting, but patience and discipline win in the long run. It is better to understand the situation and then invest rather than just blindly following the crowd.
Also Read: Fungible Tokens vs Non-Fungible Tokens; Key Differences & Applications
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