Volumes at LMAX Digital continue to show signs of healthy rebound as August kicks into gear. We’re coming out of an impressive weekend of volume, with combined total notional volume for Saturday and Sunday coming in at $1.3 billion, up over 40% from previous weekend volume.

Total notional volume over the past 30 days comes in at $23.7 billion. Average position size in bitcoin over the past 30 days comes in at $7,771. Average position size in ether over the past 30 days comes in at $3,357.

We’re seeing some selling kicking in over the past few sessions, with most of the pressure falling on bitcoin. It seems the combination of technical resistance and regulatory stress are what have been behind the latest setbacks.

On the technical side of things, bitcoin has been unable to establish above the June high as of yet, which suggests the recent poke above may have been a false break ahead of a resumption of more choppy consolidation in the $30,000 – $40,000 area.

Fundamentally, there has been a lot of nervous tension around the US infrastructure bill and its potential impact on the crypto space. At this stage, the bill has yet to pass, but the current language would create a massive tax burden for the entire crypto industry in the US.

The definition in the language of the bill of who would be taxed is far too broad and would encompass non-custodial entities like miners and DeFi protocols. The trouble with this is that these entities are structured in a way where it would be impossible for them to comply with the IRS.