Majors Recovered, Altcoins Did Not
Bitcoin order book depth within 1% of price hit about $11.7 million on Oct. 7, roughly 75% above where it sat on crash day one year earlier. Ethereum depth within the same band rose about three-quarters to $5.3 million, and within half a percent it more than doubled to $4.2 million. Market makers returned. Capital followed.
Altcoins went the other direction.
Dollar-denominated depth within 5% of price fell about one-third since the start of 2025, landing near $2 million. Depth within 1% dropped about one-sixth. Those losses matter because Bitcoin is roughly one-third cheaper than before the crash, which means the majors' depth gains reflect real capital inflows and not just lower asset prices making the same liquidity look bigger in token terms.
Altcoins show the opposite pattern. In token units, depth peaked on Jan. 1, 2026 and has eased only modestly since. Steady token-unit depth next to falling dollar depth means one thing: market makers pulled capital while token prices dropped, so the same number of tokens now represents less firepower. CoinDesk Research calls it capital erosion masked by falling prices.
Weekly spot trading volume on centralized exchanges averaged about $279 billion over the four weeks ending Sept. 27. That is nearly two-thirds below the $801 billion recorded during the crash week a year ago. Volume hit a low of about $135 billion per week in August, then roughly doubled, but it remains well below the spike that accompanied last October's liquidation cascade.
The majors-versus-altcoins divergence started before the anniversary and accelerated during the Oct. 7-8 sell-off. Bitcoin depth within 1% fell about 12% between the two days. Ethereum's tightest band thinned slightly while orders further from price increased. Altcoins never recovered the ground they lost overnight when depth within 1% fell from roughly $2.5 million to about $1.3 million.
Depth Measures Shock Absorption
Order book depth is the value of buy and sell orders resting near the current price. Deeper books absorb larger trades with less slippage. CoinDesk Research compared depth across major centralized exchanges on four dates: Jan. 1, 2025; Oct. 10, 2025 (crash day); Jan. 1, 2026; and early October 2026. The data shows Bitcoin and Ethereum rebuilt liquidity to or above early 2025 levels while altcoins fell behind every measured period except crash day itself.
Joshua de Vos, CoinDesk Research lead, expects the split to persist into next year. Saksham Diwan, a CoinDesk researcher, said the majors' deepening represents real capital and not a price effect. Altcoin depth measured in dollars tells the sharper story: it was highest on Jan. 1, 2025 and lower on every later measured date, a pattern that points to sustained capital withdrawal rather than a temporary post-crash flight.