Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) Dropped Sharply Overnight After the U.S. Department of Commerce Announced the February Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) price index

According to the top gainers of Token Mindshare (a metric quantifying the influence of specific tokens in the virtual asset market)

According to the top gainers of Token Mindshare (a metric quantifying the influence of specific tokens in the virtual asset market) by the AI-based Web3 search platform Kaito, the top 5 keywords related to virtual assets that people are most interested in as of the 29th are Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin (BTC), Banker Coin (BNKR), Coinbase, and Avalanche (AVAX).

On the 29th (local time), the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the February Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) price index, suggesting increased inflationary pressures and causing the virtual asset (cryptocurrency) market to turn downward.

Particularly, Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC), which ranked first and second in interest, fell sharply overnight, dampening investor sentiment.

The February PCE index rose 2.5% year-on-year, meeting the market expectations compiled by Dow Jones. However, the core PCE inflation rate, excluding volatile energy and food, slipped to 2.8% compared to the expected 2.7%.

Recently, there are reports of former U.S. President Donald Trump planning to impose tariffs on goods from China and Vietnam, aiming to pressure the Biden administration. Moreover, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to intervene in the national emergency declared by former President Trump in 2019 to circumvent Congress and impose tariffs on solar cells and modules from Southeast Asian countries.

These recent policy uncertainties are being interpreted as adding pressure to risk assets amid rising inflation forecasts.

Following the announcement, Ethereum and Bitcoin plunged nearly 5% and 4%, respectively, based on the Binance Tether (USDT) market. As the selling trend spread across the market, the decline in major virtual assets widened further.

Meanwhile, the AI-based virtual asset trading platform Banker, which recently introduced a token distribution feature through X (formerly Twitter), is gathering attention, but Banker Coin (BNKR) failed to defend its price.

At the beginning of the week, Banker announced the distribution of tokens to X users who retweeted a specific post by the 17th (local time). This move was seen as an unconventional approach to expand the platform's user base and community.

Banker Coin is currently trading at around $0.00022, having decreased by 28% over the past week.

Additionally, Grayscale, a major U.S. virtual asset management firm, applied for an Avalanche (AVAX) spot exchange-traded fund (ETF).

According to documents submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday, Grayscale is applying for an ETF that tracks the price of Avalanche. The firm applied for the trust on March 27 and supplemented it on April 5, but the application was not disclosed until Monday.

The 19b-4 form related to the Avalanche ETF was filed through Nasdaq on the 28th (local time), and the market reaction is unfolding.

Avalanche is trading at $20, showing a 4.8% decline from the previous day in the Binance USDT market.

Investors are also showing interest in AIXBT, ApeCoin (APE), Xai (XAI), and Chainlink (LINK).