Bitcoin and ether have restored much of their market liquidity since the October 2025 crash, with deeper order books and more capital available near current prices. Smaller cryptocurrencies continue to lose liquidity, however, while spot trading volumes remain substantially below the levels reached during the historic sell-off.
One year after crypto’s largest liquidation event, the recovery remains uneven. Bitcoin and ether now have stronger order-book depth than they did during the crash or at the start of 2026, while altcoins and spot markets continue to struggle to regain lost ground.
On Oct. 10, 2025, bitcoin was trading at approximately $122,600 after recently reaching a record above $126,000. Within hours, its price dropped below $105,000, with much of the decline occurring within minutes during low-liquidity U.S. evening trading. The sell-off followed President Donald Trump’s announcement of 100% tariffs on Chinese imports and resulted in more than $19 billion in leveraged positions being liquidated in a single day.
To measure the market’s recovery, CoinDesk Research examined order-book depth across major centralized exchanges on Jan. 1, 2025, Oct. 10, 2025, Jan. 1, 2026, and this week. Market depth measures the dollar value of buy and sell orders placed near an asset’s current price. Deeper order books generally allow large transactions to be absorbed with less impact on prices.
Bitcoin’s order book has strengthened across all three earlier comparison points. On Oct. 7, approximately $11.7 million in orders was available within 1% of its market price, about 75% more than on the crash date. The figure compares with roughly $9 million at the beginning of 2026 and $6.9 million in January 2025.
The improvement is not simply the result of changes in bitcoin’s price. With the cryptocurrency trading around one-third below its pre-crash level, the increase in dollar-denominated liquidity indicates that market makers have committed more capital to the market.
Most of bitcoin’s liquidity gains are concentrated close to its current price, where market makers tend to place their most active quotes. At a 5% distance from the market price, order-book depth remains near $24 million, broadly in line with January 2025.
Ether has posted even stronger gains in some price ranges. Its order-book depth within 0.5% of the market price has more than doubled since the crash to approximately $4.2 million. Within 1%, depth has increased by about 75% to roughly $5.3 million, surpassing levels recorded at the beginning of both 2025 and 2026.
CoinDesk Researcher Saksham Diwan said the stronger liquidity in bitcoin and ether reflects genuine capital returning to the market rather than a price-driven effect.
Recent volatility has nevertheless tested that recovery. Between Oct. 7 and Oct. 8, bitcoin’s order-book depth within 1% of its price declined by approximately 12% as markets sold off. Ether’s liquidity weakened slightly in its narrowest price range, although orders farther from the market price increased.
Altcoins have experienced the reverse trend. CoinDesk Research’s basket of smaller cryptocurrencies recorded its highest dollar-denominated market depth on Jan. 1, 2025, followed by lower readings at every subsequent measurement point.
Liquidity within 5% of altcoin prices has fallen by around one-third since early 2025 to approximately $2 million. Within a 1% range, order-book depth has declined by roughly one-sixth.
When measured in token units rather than dollars, altcoin liquidity appears to have held up better. It reached a high on Jan. 1, 2026, and has eased only modestly since. Analysts said falling prices largely explain this difference, creating the appearance of stronger liquidity even as the amount of capital committed to trading continues to shrink.
Spot trading volumes also remain depressed. According to CoinDesk Research, centralized exchanges recorded average weekly spot volume of around $279 billion during the four weeks ending Sept. 27. That was nearly two-thirds below the $801 billion traded during the week of the October 2025 crash.
Weekly spot volume dropped to approximately $135 billion in August before recovering to nearly double that amount. Despite the rebound, activity remains considerably below the levels recorded around the crash.
The sudden liquidity collapse in October 2025 left traders questioning where capital would eventually return. The latest data suggest that bitcoin and ether have captured much of that recovery.
Joshua de Vos, CoinDesk’s head of research, said market makers have rebuilt liquidity in the two leading cryptocurrencies, pushing their order books above pre-crash levels. Altcoin liquidity, meanwhile, continues to weaken across the broader market.
De Vos expects the gap between major cryptocurrencies and smaller tokens to persist into next year, with only a limited number of altcoins likely to avoid the trend. He pointed to sustained institutional interest and trading activity in bitcoin and ether as key factors behind the divergence.
