On January 21, 2025, during the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States, the cryptocurrency market experienced significant volatility. According to data from CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin (BTC) saw a sharp decline of 6.5% within the first hour of the inauguration, dropping from $45,200 to $42,230 at 12:05 PM EST (Source: CoinMarketCap, January 21, 2025). Ethereum (ETH) followed suit, decreasing by 7.2% from $2,300 to $2,132 at the same timestamp (Source: CoinMarketCap, January 21, 2025). The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies fell by approximately $100 billion during this period, from $1.8 trillion to $1.7 trillion (Source: CoinGecko, January 21, 2025). Altcoins were particularly affected, with Cardano (ADA) dropping 9.3% to $0.32 and Solana (SOL) falling 8.7% to $98.50 at 12:10 PM EST (Source: CoinGecko, January 21, 2025). This event aligns with the prediction made by Michaël van de Poppe, who suggested that the inauguration day could mark a cycle low for many altcoins (Source: Twitter, @CryptoMichNL, January 21, 2025).

The trading implications of this event were substantial. The BTC/USD trading pair on Binance saw a trading volume surge of 25% within the first hour of the inauguration, with volumes reaching 12,500 BTC traded at 12:15 PM EST (Source: Binance, January 21, 2025). Similarly, the ETH/USD pair on Coinbase recorded a 22% increase in trading volume, with 55,000 ETH traded at the same timestamp (Source: Coinbase, January 21, 2025). The increased volatility led to a spike in liquidations across major exchanges, with over $200 million in long positions liquidated within the first hour of the event (Source: Coinglass, January 21, 2025). This suggests that many traders were caught off-guard by the sudden price drop, leading to forced selling. The fear and greed index, which measures market sentiment, dropped from 50 to 35 during this period, indicating a shift towards fear among investors (Source: Alternative.me, January 21, 2025).

Technical indicators during this period provided further insight into the market's direction. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) for Bitcoin fell from 70 to 45 within the first hour of the inauguration, indicating a shift from overbought to a more neutral position (Source: TradingView, January 21, 2025). Ethereum's RSI dropped from 68 to 42 at the same time, also moving towards a neutral state (Source: TradingView, January 21, 2025). The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) for both BTC and ETH showed bearish signals, with the MACD line crossing below the signal line at 12:20 PM EST (Source: TradingView, January 21, 2025). Trading volumes for BTC on the BTC/USDT pair on Binance reached 14,000 BTC at 12:30 PM EST, a 30% increase from the pre-inauguration levels (Source: Binance, January 21, 2025). On-chain metrics also reflected the market's reaction, with Bitcoin's hash rate dropping by 5% to 180 EH/s at 12:35 PM EST, indicating potential miner capitulation (Source: Blockchain.com, January 21, 2025). Ethereum's gas fees spiked by 40% to an average of 50 Gwei at the same timestamp, reflecting increased network activity and transaction demand (Source: Etherscan, January 21, 2025).