LMAX Digital volumes got off to a lighter start this week. Total notional volume for Monday came in at $453 million, 30% below 30-day average volume.

Bitcoin volume printed $299 million on Monday, 21% below 30-day average volume. Ether volume came in at $101 million, 42% below 30-day average volume.

Looking at average position size over the past 30 days, we’re seeing average bitcoin position size at $10,192 and average position size for ether at $4,511.

Market volatility has been in cool down mode since peaking in March. We’re looking at average daily ranges in bitcoin and ether of $2,879 and $173 respectively.

Things have been relatively quiet as the week gets going, though what little price action we have seen of late has been more bearish leaning.

We see two primary drivers behind the latest bout of weakness. At the same time, it’s also important to highlight that as per our technical insights, the weakness has been classified as corrective price action within a very clear uptrend for bitcoin and broader crypto assets.

As far as the two drivers go, the first is a reduction in ETF demand. A lot has been made of the importance of the ETF market for the ecosystem overall. And so, this reduction in demand has been weighing a little on sentiment.

The other major driver comes from the global macro front. We continue to see evidence of the Fed needing to be leaning back to a higher for longer policy outlook, despite investor calls for more accommodation.

This added pressure on the Fed, by way of stronger US economic data and hotter inflation, has resulted in yield differentials moving decidedly back in favor of the US Dollar in recent weeks.

As a consequence, with the US Dollar coming back into favor across the board, we are seeing this filter over into crypto assets as well.

On a positive note, we are seeing further development in the crypto space. Last week’s news of Stripe introducing stablecoin crypto payments has been taken as an encouraging sign of demand and deeper adoption.