A year after the great flush, $BTC and $ETH order books are fatter than ever — altcoins, not so much

One year after the largest liquidation event in crypto history, the market's plumbing tells a split story. Bitcoin and ether order books now hold more resting liquidity than on the day of the crash or at the start of this year, while smaller tokens and overall spot trading have not followed suit. CoinDesk Research compared market depth across major centralized exchanges on four dates: Jan. 1, 2025; Oct. 10, 2025; Jan. 1, 2026; and the week of Oct. 7, 2026.

On Oct. 7, about $11.7 million in $BTC orders sat within 1% of the price, roughly 75% more than on crash day a year earlier, up from about $9 million at the start of 2026 and about $6.9 million at the start of 2025. The improvement is not a price effect: bitcoin is about one-third cheaper than before the crash, so a deeper book in dollar terms reflects more capital committed by market makers. Most of the gain is concentrated near the price, where market makers quote most actively; at 5% from the price, depth of around $24 million is roughly where it stood in January 2025.

$ETH's recovery is in some ways stronger. Depth within 0.5% of the price has more than doubled since crash day, to about $4.2 million, while depth at 1% has risen by about three-quarters to roughly $5.3 million, above both January readings. "The majors' deepening is real capital, not a price effect," CoinDesk researcher Saksham Diwan said. The rebuilt books received an early test this week: as the market sold off, $BTC's 1% depth fell about 12% between Oct. 7 and Oct. 8, and ether's tightest band thinned slightly, though orders further from the price increased.

Altcoin liquidity has moved in the opposite direction. Dollar depth for smaller tokens has fallen steadily since early 2025, a decline masked by lower token prices. Weekly spot trading volume across the market is down nearly two-thirds from the crash week, though it has roughly doubled from an August low.

The Oct. 10, 2025 event unfolded hours after $BTC had pulled back to $122,600 from a record above $126,000, when it plunged below $105,000 in thin Friday evening U.S. trade following President Donald Trump's announcement of 100% tariffs on Chinese imports. More than $19 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated in a single day, the largest such event on record.