One year after 10/10, bitcoin and ether liquidity have rebuilt, but other altcoins still face risks

One year after 10/10, bitcoin and ether liquidity have rebuilt, but other altcoins still face risksBitcoin and ether order books are deeper than before the crash, while altcoin liquidity keeps eroding and spot trading remains well below its October 2025 peak.Updated Oct 10, 2026, 8:10 a.m. EDTPublished Oct 10, 2026, 8:00 a.m. EDTLiquidity divergence (CoinDesk data)Bitcoin and ether order books are deeper than on crash day and at the start of 2025 and 2026, and the gains hold in dollar terms, reflecting more capital from market makers, not just cheaper coins.Altcoin liquidity has moved the other way, with dollar depth falling steadily since early 2025, a decline masked by falling token prices.Weekly spot trading volume is down nearly two-thirds from the crash week, though it has roughly doubled from an August low.One year after the largest liquidation event in crypto history, the market’s plumbing tells a split story. Bitcoin and ether order books hold more resting liquidity now than on the day of the crash or at the start of this year. Smaller tokens and spot trading, however, have not followed.Days after hitting a record high above $126,000, bitcoin, on the morning of Oct. 10, 2025, had edged back to $122,600. Hours later, it had plunged below $105,000, with much of the decline coming in minutes in thin Friday evening (U.S. time) trade after President Donald Trump announced 100% tariffs on Chinese imports. More than $19 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated in a single day.To gauge the recovery since, CoinDesk Research compared market depth across major centralized exchanges on four dates: Jan. 1, 2025; Oct. 10, 2025; Jan. 1, 2026; and this week. Depth is the value of buy and sell orders resting near the current price. The deeper the book, the more volume a large trade can absorb without moving the market.Bitcoin’s order book is deeper now than on any of those earlier dates. On Oct. 7, about $11.7 million sat within 1% of the price. That is roughly 75% more than on crash day a year earlier, up from about $9 million at the start of this year and about $6.9 million at the start of 2025.This isn’t a price effect. Bitcoin is about one-third cheaper than before the crash, so a deeper book, measured in dollars, reflects more capital committed by market makers, not just less valuable coins.Most of the improvement is near the price, where market makers quote most actively. Further out, at 5% from the price, the depth of around $24 million is roughly where it was in January 2025.Bitcoin depth (CoinDesk data)Ether’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. At 1%, it 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.ETH depth (CoinDesk data)The rebuilt books got an early test this week. As the market sold off, bitcoin’s 1% depth fell about 12% between Oct. 7 and Oct. 8. Ether’s tightest band thinned slightly, though orders further from the price increased.Altcoins left behindFor altcoins, the picture is reversed. In CoinDesk Research’s basket of altcoins, dollar depth was greatest on Jan. 1, 2025, and has been lower on each date measured since.Depth at 5% from the price is down about a third since the start of 2025, to around $2 million. Closer to the price, at 1%, it has fallen by about a sixth.Measured in tokens, alt depth looks healthier: it peaked on Jan. 1 this year and has eased only modestly since. But analysts said that token-unit recovery was mostly due to falling prices, masking a steady erosion in committed capital.Altcoin depth (CoinDesk data)Spot trading thins outSpot trading has not recovered. Weekly spot volume on centralized exchanges averaged around $279 billion over the four weeks to Sept. 27, according to CoinDesk Research, nearly two-thirds below the $801 billion traded in the week of the crash.Activity bottomed out in August, when weekly volume fell to around $135 billion, and has doubled since. But it remains well short of levels seen around the crash.Spot volume (CoinDesk data)What it meansCrypto’s liquidity vanished in hours on Oct. 10, 2025. Where it was next was the open question.“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,” said Joshua de Vos, Research lead at CoinDesk. “Market makers have returned to majors, with liquidity above pre-crash levels, whilst altcoin liquidity continues to trend down as a whole. Beyond a select few alts, I expect this divergence to persist into next year as majors continue to dominate institutional interest and volumes.”12345678910