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
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
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
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
Spot 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
Crypto’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.”
1Tokenized commodities look beyond gold as lending and oil open new markets16 hours ago2Bitcoin's $19 billion wake-up call: One-year after flash crash, has crypto learned anything?17 hours ago3Bitcoin's volatility has plunged, but extreme price swings are more frequent than in 201822 hours ago4Robinhood Chain slowdown spreads from fees to trading as transactions fall more than 40%23 hours ago5XRP Ledger patched decade-old bug that could create billions of dollars in XRP from nothing23 hours ago6Visa survey says nearly half of APAC consumers open to using stablecoins by 20311 day ago7U.S. CFTC moves to fold event contracts into swaps regulations as legal fight rages1 day ago8Robinhood Chain considers technology that gives paying traders priority1 day ago9New York AG secures up to $35 million and lifetime crypto ban from Celsius’ Alex Mashinsky1 day ago10Ledger investigates potential wallet tampering after reports of $86 million in crypto stolen1 day agoLatest Research Beyond the Risk-Free Rate: Diversified Real World Yield in Productive StablecoinsBeyond the Risk-Free Rate: Diversified Real World Yield in Productive StablecoinsDiversified RWA stablecoins sustain 5-7% yield from real credit as crypto funding compresses to ~4%. GENIUS pushes yield off-chain; TAM grows to $4B in 3 years
Diversified RWA stablecoins sustain 5-7% yield from real credit as crypto funding compresses to ~4%. GENIUS pushes yield off-chain; TAM grows to $4B in 3 years
Diversified RWA stablecoins sustain 5-7% yield from real credit as crypto funding compresses to ~4%. GENIUS pushes yield off-chain; TAM grows to $4B in 3 years
