LMAX Digital volumes held relatively steady on Tuesday. Total notional volume for Tuesday came in at $592 million, 4% below 30-day average volume.

Bitcoin volume printed $475 million on Tuesday, 1% above 30-day average volume. Ether volume came in at $80 million, 22% below 30-day average volume.

Looking at average position size over the past 30 days, we’re seeing average bitcoin position size at $15,024 and average position size for ether at $3,449.

Volatility has been trending just off yearly high levels set the other week. We’re looking at average daily ranges in bitcoin and ether of $1,506 and $91 respectively.

Setbacks in crypto assets continue to be very well supported. We have seen a little dip from yearly highs in recent sessions, but the clear takeaway is that demand remains strong on any sign of weakness.

We see three notable drivers behind this latest wave of demand. The first, and easiest to spot out is the technical picture. It’s quite clear that we are in an uptrend and as we have said many times, trends have a way of pushing into year end.

The second driver comes from an interesting bitcoin stat. This stat shows whale activity picking up. Transaction amounting to at least $100k worth of bitcoin are considered to be whale transactions, and these transactions have doubled in recent sessions.

Finally, news around the bitcoin spot ETF application process has also generated demand. On Monday, BlackRock filed a revised spot bitcoin ETF proposal in a bid to appease regulators.

Under the updated proposal, Blackrock’s ETF will follow the model favored by the SEC which features cash creation and redemption mechanisms.

As far as macro fundamentals go, though we have seen less correlation with traditional assets, we think it will be worth paying attention to US equities over the coming sessions.

The Dow and Nasdaq have extended to fresh record highs as the market prices a soft landing in the US.

And yet, there does appear to be some risk the market has gotten ahead of itself, which if proven true, could inspire a nasty reversal in risk assets, inviting more volatility to the crypto market.