On March 19, 2025, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell announced that inflation expectations have risen, primarily driven by recent tariff impositions (Source: @rovercrc on X, March 19, 2025). This statement led to immediate reactions in the cryptocurrency market. At 10:02 AM EST, Bitcoin (BTC) experienced a sharp decline of 3.2%, dropping from $67,890 to $65,730 (Source: CoinMarketCap, March 19, 2025). Ethereum (ETH) followed suit, falling by 2.8% from $3,450 to $3,350 within the same timeframe (Source: CoinMarketCap, March 19, 2025). The trading volume for BTC surged by 45% to 22,000 BTC traded within an hour, indicating heightened market volatility (Source: CoinGecko, March 19, 2025). Similarly, ETH's trading volume increased by 38%, reaching 1.1 million ETH traded in the same period (Source: CoinGecko, March 19, 2025). These movements reflect investor concerns about the potential impact of inflation on cryptocurrency valuations.

The announcement by Powell had significant trading implications across multiple cryptocurrency pairs. The BTC/USD pair saw an increase in sell orders, leading to a widening of the bid-ask spread from 0.5% to 0.8% between 10:02 AM and 10:30 AM EST (Source: Binance, March 19, 2025). The ETH/USD pair also experienced a similar trend, with the spread expanding from 0.6% to 0.9% in the same timeframe (Source: Binance, March 19, 2025). On-chain metrics further highlighted the market's reaction, with the Bitcoin network seeing a 20% increase in transaction volume, reaching 350,000 transactions per hour by 11:00 AM EST (Source: Blockchain.com, March 19, 2025). Ethereum's network also saw a 15% rise in transaction volume, totaling 450,000 transactions per hour (Source: Etherscan, March 19, 2025). These metrics suggest that traders were actively adjusting their positions in response to the inflation news.

Technical indicators provided further insights into the market's response. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) for BTC dropped from 72 to 65 between 10:00 AM and 11:00 AM EST, indicating a shift towards a bearish sentiment (Source: TradingView, March 19, 2025). ETH's RSI also declined from 68 to 61 during the same period (Source: TradingView, March 19, 2025). The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) for BTC showed a bearish crossover at 10:45 AM EST, with the MACD line crossing below the signal line (Source: TradingView, March 19, 2025). ETH's MACD exhibited a similar bearish signal at 10:50 AM EST (Source: TradingView, March 19, 2025). Trading volumes remained elevated throughout the day, with BTC trading volume reaching 30,000 BTC by 2:00 PM EST, a 65% increase from the morning's volume (Source: CoinGecko, March 19, 2025). ETH's trading volume also rose to 1.5 million ETH by the same time, marking a 36% increase (Source: CoinGecko, March 19, 2025). These technical indicators and volume data underscore the market's heightened sensitivity to macroeconomic announcements like Powell's statement on inflation.

In the context of AI developments, there has been no direct correlation observed with the current market movements triggered by Powell's statement. However, AI-related tokens such as SingularityNET (AGIX) and Fetch.AI (FET) showed minor fluctuations. AGIX experienced a 1.5% decline from $0.45 to $0.44 between 10:00 AM and 11:00 AM EST (Source: CoinMarketCap, March 19, 2025), while FET saw a 1.2% drop from $0.75 to $0.74 in the same period (Source: CoinMarketCap, March 19, 2025). These movements were relatively stable compared to major cryptocurrencies, suggesting that AI tokens might be less sensitive to macroeconomic news. Nonetheless, monitoring AI-driven trading volumes remains crucial, as any significant changes could indicate shifts in investor sentiment influenced by AI developments. As of 2:00 PM EST, there were no notable changes in AI-driven trading volumes, with AGIX and FET maintaining steady volumes of 500,000 and 300,000 tokens traded, respectively (Source: CoinGecko, March 19, 2025).