Bitcoin Drops After FOMC: Altcoins Struggle, SIREN Surges 90%

March 25, 2026 Priya Shah – Business Editor Business

Bitcoin tumbled to a two-week low of $68,049.4 on Monday, extending a decline triggered by hawkish comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, although the altcoin SIREN surged by 90% in 24 hours, defying the broader market downturn.

The volatility followed the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting last week, where the Fed opted to hold interest rates steady. Bitcoin initially experienced a brief rally to $72,000 following the announcement, but Powell’s subsequent indication that no rate reductions are anticipated in 2026 quickly reversed gains, pushing the cryptocurrency down to around $68,000, according to reports from cryptonews.net and coinalertnews.com.

The broader cryptocurrency market experienced a $200 billion drop in market capitalization as macroeconomic factors weighed on prices. Ethereum saw a decline of over $300, falling below $2,100, and XRP also experienced a sharp drop, struggling below $1.40. Solana, Cardano, Dogecoin, Binance Coin, and Chainlink all saw declines of 2-4% in the last 24 hours.

In stark contrast to the widespread losses, SIREN, an AI-powered token on the BNB Chain, experienced a parabolic surge, increasing 150% in 24 hours to $2.27, boosting its market cap to $1.66 billion. This dramatic increase, however, occurred on relatively thin trading volume of $78 million, resulting in a volume-to-market-cap ratio of 4.7%, significantly below the 10-30% benchmark considered healthy for mid-cap cryptocurrencies, as noted by ainvest.com.

The surge in SIREN’s price was partially attributed to listings on Binance Futures and Alpha, which doubled the token’s market cap. However, analysts at ainvest.com cautioned that the rally lacks fundamental justification and carries reversal risks. The surge occurred amidst broader crypto outflows and extreme fear sentiment, as indicated by the Fear & Greed Index.

The divergence between Bitcoin’s decline and SIREN’s surge suggests that AI-related narratives may offer a defensive rotation play during market-wide risk-off events, according to coinalertnews.com. However, the sustainability of SIREN’s gains is dependent on Bitcoin’s ability to reclaim the $70,000 level and an overall improvement in market sentiment.