LMAX Digital volumes saw a slight improvement from Tuesday. Total notional volume for Wednesday came in at $273 million, matching 30-day average volume.

Bitcoin volume printed $139 million, 8% below 30-day average volume. Ether volume came in at $78 million, 27% above 30-day average volume.

Looking at average position size over the past 30 days, we’re seeing average bitcoin position size at $8,232 and average position size for ether at $1,534.

Bitcoin and ETH volatility remains relatively subdued. We’re looking at average daily ranges in bitcoin and ether of $2,336 and $120 respectively.

Bitcoin has spent the past 24 hours consolidating, struggling to regain traction above the $90k handle despite a broadly supportive macro backdrop. ETH has followed a similar path, holding just below the $3k level and continuing to lag slightly on a relative basis.

While price action has been softer than many would have expected given the broader risk-on impulse, the market appears to be digesting recent gains rather than signaling a material deterioration in underlying structure.

It is also worth emphasizing that the broader trend remains firmly constructive, with crypto still in recovery mode from the November lows and having already staged a healthy rebound to start the week.

Against that backdrop, the latest consolidation looks more like a pause within an ongoing upswing than the start of a deeper correction. Near-term softness is therefore best viewed in the context of a market that has already covered significant ground over a relatively short period.

The macro narrative remains anchored around the Fed’s latest policy update, with rates left unchanged and messaging interpreted as broadly consistent with a gradual easing bias later in the year.

Ordinarily, a softer dollar and firm equity performance would be expected to provide a clearer tailwind for crypto, making the current pause feel somewhat unusual. That said, this divergence likely reflects short-term positioning and profit-taking rather than a shift in the medium-term liquidity story.

Within crypto, ETF flows have been mixed to slightly negative over the past day, helping to explain the lack of immediate upside follow-through. Even so, on-chain and derivatives metrics continue to point to orderly conditions, with no signs of stress or forced deleveraging.

Importantly, pullbacks have remained relatively shallow, reinforcing the view that underlying demand is intact and that longer-term allocators are using dips to build exposure rather than exit positions.

In this context, the current consolidation phase looks consistent with healthy digestion, and recent softness increasingly reads as an opportunity for positioning ahead of the next leg higher, rather than a signal to fade the broader narrative.