LMAX Digital volumes got off to a great start this week. Total notional volume for Monday came in at $547 million, 33% above 30-day average volume.

Bitcoin volume printed $311 million on Monday, 31% above 30-day average volume. Ether volume came in at $165 million, 24% above 30-day average volume.

Looking at average position size over the past 30 days, we’re seeing average bitcoin position size at $6,469 and average position size for ether at 2,462.

Volatility is still struggling to show signs of picking back up. We’re looking at average daily ranges in bitcoin and ether of $935 and $107 respectively.

Trading conditions were thinner on Monday on account of some holiday closures in Japan and the UK. But this didn’t stop the market from wanting to be active trading cryptocurrencies, with volume up impressively to start the week.

Fundamentally, there hasn’t been all that much to talk about as far as updates go. The Ethereum Merge is now behind us after going off smoothly, and as expected, we have seen some initial selling of the fact in the aftermath.

Overall, the focus for crypto markets continues to be on all things global macro. And so, tomorrow’s FOMC decision will likely play a major impact on the next big move.

If the Fed comes out leaning more hawkish than the market expects, look for more downside pressure on risk assets, which is expected to weigh on crypto as well. If on the other hand the market perceives the Fed to be less hawkish, we should expect to see a renewed wave of demand for crypto.

All things considered, it does appear as though the market has priced in just about as much hawkishness as it can after last week’s hot US CPI print, which leaves the balance of risk tilted towards the Fed delivering a less hawkish communication.

At the same time, technically speaking, bitcoin and ether have been confined to consolidations over the past several weeks within what are still very clear downtrends.

Given all of this, it makes sense to see the market not wanting to really commit one way or the other until the FOMC event risk dust settles.