Crypto market liquidity rebuilds unevenly as bitcoin, ether deepen and altcoins lag

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Crypto market liquidity divide

Highlights

Bitcoin's order book depth within 1% of the price reached $11.7 million on Oct. 7, up 75% from Oct. 10, 2025 crash-day levels.
Ether's order book depth within 0.5% of price has more than doubled since the crash to $4.2 million, with 1% depth up by three-quarters to $5.3 million.
Altcoin dollar market depth 5% from price has dropped by about one-third to roughly $2 million since Jan. 1, 2025, as spot volumes remain two-thirds below October 2025 crash levels.

Order book recovery centers on major tokens

As reported by CoinDesk Research, liquidity on major centralized exchanges has recovered unevenly since the Oct. 10, 2025 crash, with bitcoin and ether attracting more committed market-making capital while smaller tokens continue to lose support. The comparison covers Jan. 1, 2025, Oct. 10, 2025, Jan. 1, 2026 and this week, using market depth, the value of buy and sell orders resting near the current price, as a gauge of how much volume markets can absorb without sharp price moves.

Bitcoin's order book is now deeper than on any of those earlier dates. On Oct. 7, around $11.7 million sat within 1% of the price, roughly 75% above crash-day levels, up from about $9 million at the start of this year and about $6.9 million at the start of 2025.

The improvement is not simply the result of valuation effects, because bitcoin is about one-third cheaper than before the crash. That means the larger dollar depth reflects greater capital commitment from market makers, especially close to the market price, although depth at 5% from the price, around $24 million, is roughly in line with January 2025.

Ether's rebound is in some respects stronger. Depth within 0.5% of the price has more than doubled since crash day to about $4.2 million, while 1% depth has climbed by about three-quarters to roughly $5.3 million, above both January readings.

The rebuilt books have already faced a fresh test this week. During a market sell-off, bitcoin's 1% depth fell about 12% between Oct. 7 and Oct. 8, while ether's closest band thinned slightly even as orders further from the price increased.

Altcoin weakness persists as spot volumes stay subdued

Conditions are markedly weaker away from the two largest cryptocurrencies. In CoinDesk Research's basket of altcoins, dollar depth is highest on Jan. 1, 2025 and is lower on every measured date after that, with depth 5% from the price down about one-third since the start of 2025 to around $2 million, and 1% depth down about a sixth.

Measured in token units, altcoin depth appears more resilient and peaks on Jan. 1 this year, easing only modestly afterward. Analysts say that apparent recovery mostly reflects lower token prices, which mask a continued decline in actual capital committed to those markets.

Spot trading activity also remains below pre-shock levels. Weekly spot volume on centralized exchanges averages about $279 billion over the four weeks to Sept. 27, nearly two-thirds below the $801 billion recorded in the week of the October 2025 crash.

Trading activity bottoms out in August, when weekly spot volume falls to around $135 billion, and has since doubled. Even so, it remains well short of the levels seen around the liquidation event that followed President Donald Trump's announcement of 100% tariffs on Chinese imports, when more than $19 billion in leveraged positions were wiped out in a single day.

Joshua de Vos, manager at CoinDesk Research, says the market now offers a clearer answer on where capital rotates after the shock. He says market makers have returned to bitcoin and ether with liquidity above pre-crash levels, while altcoin liquidity continues to trend lower overall, and adds that the divergence is likely to persist into next year as majors keep dominating institutional interest and trading volumes.

Our earlier article on Weiss Ratings’ Crypto Portfolio explained how the firm packages a model-driven approach to crypto allocation, combining coin selection with market-timing signals. It positioned the service as a way for investors to seek returns beyond a Bitcoin-only strategy by rotating into altcoins identified by its ratings model and adjusting exposure based on timing indicators.

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