Bitcoin and Ether have rebuilt their order book liquidity one year after the October 10, 2025, flash crash, but altcoins continue to lose depth as spot trading volumes remain well below their previous peak.
A year after the largest liquidation event in cryptocurrency history, market liquidity has recovered unevenly. Bitcoin and Ether now have more buy and sell orders near their current prices than they did during the crash or at the beginning of 2026. Smaller cryptocurrencies, by contrast, continue to experience declining liquidity, while spot trading activity remains weak.
Bitcoin was trading around $122,600 on the morning of Oct. 10, 2025, following a record high above $126,000 earlier that week. Within hours, the price fell below $105,000, with much of the decline occurring in minutes during thin U.S. evening trading. The sell-off followed President Donald Trump’s announcement of 100% tariffs on Chinese imports, triggering more than $19 billion in leveraged liquidations in a single day.
CoinDesk Research assessed the recovery by comparing market depth across major centralized exchanges on Jan. 1, 2025, Oct. 10, 2025, Jan. 1, 2026, and the current week. Market depth measures the dollar value of buy and sell orders placed close to an asset’s market price. Deeper order books allow large trades to be absorbed with less impact on prices.
Bitcoin’s order book depth has surpassed levels recorded on all three earlier comparison dates. On Oct. 7, approximately $11.7 million in orders were available within 1% of its market price, roughly 75% above the level on crash day. This compares with about $9 million at the start of 2026 and $6.9 million in January 2025.
The increase is not simply the result of price movements. Bitcoin is trading around one-third below its pre-crash level, indicating that the deeper dollar-denominated order book reflects additional capital committed by market makers rather than changes in the asset’s price alone.
Most of the improvement is concentrated near Bitcoin’s current price, where market makers are most active. At a 5% distance from the market price, order book depth remains around $24 million, broadly similar to its level at the beginning of 2025.
Ether has recorded an even stronger recovery in some areas. Liquidity within 0.5% of its market price has more than doubled since the crash to approximately $4.2 million. Within 1%, depth has increased by around 75% to roughly $5.3 million, exceeding levels recorded at the start of both 2025 and 2026.
CoinDesk Researcher Saksham Diwan said the stronger liquidity in Bitcoin and Ether represents a genuine return of capital rather than an effect driven by price changes.
This week’s market downturn provided an early test of the recovery. Bitcoin’s order book depth within 1% of its price fell by approximately 12% between Oct. 7 and Oct. 8. Ether’s tightest liquidity range also weakened slightly, although order volumes farther from the market price increased.
Altcoin liquidity continues to deteriorate
Unlike Bitcoin and Ether, alternative cryptocurrencies have experienced a sustained decline in dollar-denominated market depth. CoinDesk Research’s altcoin basket recorded its highest liquidity level on Jan. 1, 2025, with lower readings on every subsequent comparison date.
Depth within 5% of altcoin prices has fallen by approximately one-third since early 2025 to around $2 million. Within 1% of the market price, liquidity has declined by roughly one-sixth.
Altcoins appear to have fared better when liquidity is measured in token units. Depth in those terms peaked on Jan. 1, 2026, and has decreased only modestly since. However, analysts attribute much of this apparent resilience to falling token prices, which conceal the ongoing decline in capital committed to these markets.
Spot trading remains below previous levels
Spot trading volumes have also failed to return to their earlier highs. CoinDesk Research estimates that weekly spot volume across centralized exchanges averaged approximately $279 billion during the four weeks leading up to Sept. 27. That figure was nearly two-thirds below the $801 billion recorded during the week of the October 2025 crash.
Trading activity bottomed out in August at around $135 billion in weekly volume before recovering to roughly twice that level. Despite the rebound, activity remains considerably weaker than during the crash period.
Institutional interest favors major cryptocurrencies
The October 10, 2025, crash drained market liquidity within hours, raising questions about where capital would move once conditions stabilized.
CoinDesk Research lead Joshua de Vos said the recovery has largely concentrated in Bitcoin and Ether. Market makers have returned to both assets, lifting their liquidity above pre-crash levels, while altcoin liquidity continues to decline across the broader market.
De Vos expects the gap to persist into 2027, with only a limited number of altcoins potentially avoiding the trend. Continued institutional demand for major cryptocurrencies and the concentration of trading volumes in Bitcoin and Ether could reinforce their advantage over smaller digital assets.
