Walsh said one thing tonight, and the impact could be even bigger than the rate hike itself.

From now on, the Federal Reserve will no longer provide forward guidance to the market.

Going forward, every policy meeting will be a game of guesswork.

This was his first public appearance since last month’s meeting, and with just a few remarks he completely threw the market’s rate-hike expectations into disarray.

The most crucial point is this: the Federal Reserve will no longer give the market any advance hints.

He said plainly that the policy framework has changed. From now on, how interest rates will move will be fiercely debated internally behind closed doors, and outsiders won’t be able to know in advance.

The old way we relied on officials’ comments to anticipate rate hikes and cuts is now officially over.

When someone pressed him on whether there will be a rate hike in July, he dodged the question the whole time, only dropping the line, “There will be full internal discussion at the meeting four weeks from now,” without giving a single half-word of hint.

The market immediately panicked to the downside— the probability of a July rate hike fell to below 50%, and the earlier enthusiasm for a September rate hike also cooled.

Still, he held firmly to two things.

First, balance sheet reduction will continue. He wants to keep shrinking the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet, and the overall direction of tighter liquidity has not changed.

Second, the dot plot will not be canceled for now. Although there will be no verbal hints, after the meeting you can still see officials’ overall interest rate expectations in the dot plot.

After his remarks landed, the market bounced.

BTC 59548 rose 2%, ETH 1597 rose 2%, OKB 80.8 rose 2.9%. With rate-hike expectations cooling, funds seized a short-term rebound.

Here are a few implications for the crypto space.

He didn’t lock in that there will be a rate hike in July, and the market breathed a sigh of relief.

But with balance sheet reduction continuing long term—and with officials no longer leaking information in advance—it's as if the clues for anticipating policy have been lost.

Once the later non-farm and inflation data come out, the market is likely to swing violently, and the tolerance for high leverage will become especially low.

Don’t casually take concentrated positions betting on one-direction moves. Every policy meeting hides variables.

Watch the data more, and bet on expectations less.