LMAX Digital volumes were strong on Tuesday. Total notional volume came in at $412 million, 56% above 30-day average volume.

Breaking it down per coin, bitcoin volume came in at $164 million, 21% above 30-day average volume. Ether volume came in at $106 million, 129% above 30-day average volume.

Looking at average position size over the past 30 days, we’re seeing average bitcoin position size at $6,649 and average position size for ether at $1,427.

Volatility is consolidating after a sharp rise out from multi-month lows. We’re looking at average daily ranges in bitcoin and ether of $2,173 and $97 respectively.

Crypto remains under pressure into Wednesday, but the most important takeaway from the failure of the Clarity Act to advance is that there was very little surprise in the outcome. The market had been steadily pricing in the prospect of the bill failing, and while Bitcoin and ETH have extended their recent declines, the broader move has hardly been disorderly.

In many respects, the weakness looks just as consistent with continued consolidation following the strong August run and a broader risk-off backdrop as it does with the Senate vote itself.

The macro environment has certainly not been helping. Crypto has had to absorb weakness across US equities, sharply higher Treasury yields, elevated oil prices and renewed geopolitical risk, all of which have reinforced inflation concerns and improved yield differentials in favor of the US dollar.

With the Fed decision now directly ahead and markets positioned for another rate increase, investors have had little incentive to add aggressively to higher-beta exposure. Against that backdrop, Bitcoin and ETH holding up as well as they have is notable.

We continue to see a meaningful silver lining in the Clarity outcome. The failure to advance the legislation leaves the SEC and CFTC with an important role in shaping the regulatory framework through their existing authority.

There is now an opportunity for the industry and regulators to pursue clarity without some of the compromises required to get a divided Congress behind a single bill. That does not guarantee a better regulatory outcome, but it leaves considerable scope for positive surprises, particularly if the agencies ultimately deliver a framework viewed as constructive by the industry.

More broadly, crypto has already been asked to price a substantial list of headwinds: regulatory disappointment, tighter monetary policy, higher yields, expensive energy, geopolitical uncertainty and softer equities. Bitcoin remains well below its highs for the year, while ETH has also pulled back after its strong summer performance.

That leaves the asset class with plenty of room to recover should even some of these pressures begin to ease. Importantly, the fact that crypto has absorbed so much negative news without a more significant breakdown speaks to the underlying resilience of the market.

For us, the bigger signal continues to be how well crypto is performing under difficult conditions rather than the modest weakness generated by any single headline. Markets ultimately reveal their underlying strength by how they behave when the macro environment is working against them.

If Bitcoin and ETH can absorb the current combination of regulatory and macro headwinds before turning back toward fresh multiweek highs, that resilience should become an increasingly important part of the bullish medium-term narrative.