LMAX Digital volumes got off to an impressive start this week. Total notional volume for Monday came in at $1.3 billion, 217% above 30-day average volume.

Bitcoin volume printed $885 million on Monday, 236% above 30-day average volume. Ether volume came in at $234 million, 192% above 30-day average volume.

Looking at average position size over the past 30 days, we’re seeing average bitcoin position size at $9,634 and average position size for ether at $3,146.

Market volatility has been trending back up since bottoming out in October. We’re looking at average daily ranges in bitcoin and ether of $3,103 and $146 respectively.

Bitcoin has been moving at an incredible pace after finally taking out the previous record high from March, now within a stone’s throw of the much talked about psychological barrier at $100k.

The move has been accompanied by strong demand across all major crypto assets and we believe there are three major drivers behind the price action.

The first driver is chart driven. After consolidating for much of 2024 in a 25k range, bitcoin finally broke out above $75,000 to open this next major upside extension.

This has also been helped along by added demand from a major breakout in the price of ETH beyond $2,820.

The second driver of price action is seasonality. As we’ve been highlighting, Q4 performance for bitcoin and crypto assets has been strong historically.

Bitcoin performance in Q4 since 2013 is +80%, which still leaves plenty of room for a push through $100k given that we are up just over 50% on the quarter thus far.

The final driver comes from the fundamentals around US politics. There is no denying what should be a much warmer climate for crypto assets in a Trump administration.

The expected regulatory clarity has encouraged the prospect for a workable regulatory environment, which has been a major positive for the entire crypto space as it promotes a decidedly more favorable outlook for defi projects.