As of one year after the significant liquidity crisis on October 10, 2025, both Bitcoin and Ether have seen their liquidity levels improve, while altcoins continue to struggle.
Bitcoin and Ether Show Stronger Order Books, but Altcoins Lag Behind
Analysis reveals that the order books for Bitcoin and Ether are now deeper than they were at the time of the crash and at the start of 2025 and 2026. This increase reflects a rise in capital from market makers rather than just a drop in coin prices. Conversely, altcoin liquidity has steadily declined, diminishing since early 2025, and spot trading volumes remain significantly lower than their peak in October 2025.
On the day of the crash, Bitcoin had just fallen from a record high above $126,000 to around $122,600 before plummeting below $105,000 due to market reactions to President Donald Trump's announcement of 100% tariffs on Chinese imports. This event led to the liquidation of over $19 billion in leveraged positions within a single day.
To assess the market recovery, CoinDesk Research compared liquidity across several major centralized exchanges on four key dates: January 1, 2025; October 10, 2025; January 1, 2026; and the current week. Market depth, which indicates the total value of buy and sell orders close to the current price, has shown that Bitcoin's order book is currently deeper than on any of those previous dates. As of October 7, approximately $11.7 million was available within 1% of the price, representing a 75% increase from the crash day, as well as increases from earlier in the year.
This increase in depth is not merely a result of lower prices; Bitcoin is currently about one-third less expensive than before the crash, indicating that the deeper order book reflects actual capital commitment from market makers.
Ether's recovery appears even more robust, with depth within 0.5% of the price having more than doubled since the crash, reaching around $4.2 million. At a 1% distance from the price, it has increased by roughly 75%, surpassing levels seen in January.
“The majors’ deepening is real capital, not a price effect,” stated CoinDesk Researcher Saksham Diwan.
Altcoins Struggle to Regain Ground
In contrast, altcoins have not fared as well. According to CoinDesk Research, the dollar depth for altcoins peaked on January 1, 2025, and has decreased on each subsequent measurement date. Depth at 5% from the price has dropped by around one-third since the beginning of 2025, now at about $2 million, while 1% depth has decreased by about one-sixth.
When measured in tokens, altcoin depth seems healthier, having peaked earlier this year, but analysts caution that this recovery is largely due to falling prices, which obscures the ongoing decline in committed capital.
Spot Trading Volume Remains Low
The recovery in spot trading has been lackluster, with weekly trading volumes on centralized exchanges averaging around $279 billion over the four weeks leading up to September 27. This figure is nearly two-thirds lower than the $801 billion traded during the crash week. After hitting a low of about $135 billion in August, trading volume has since doubled, but it still falls far short of pre-crash levels.
Implications for the Market
The liquidity crisis of October 10, 2025, posed significant questions about the future of the market. CoinDesk's Joshua de Vos noted, “A year ago, we wrote that liquidity was thin and fragmented, and that it was unclear where capital would rotate once the dust settled. We now have an answer: bitcoin and ether.” He added that while liquidity in major cryptocurrencies has surpassed pre-crash levels, altcoin liquidity continues to decline, suggesting that the dominance of major cryptocurrencies is likely to persist into the next year as they attract more institutional interest and trading volumes.