Bitcoin's order book is 75% deeper than on the day of crypto's $19 billion crash

Most of bitcoin's added depth sits close to the price, where market makers quote most actively, according to CoinDesk Research ^[6]. Within 5% of the price the book holds around $24 million, roughly its January 2025 level ^[6]. Subtract the 1% figures from that and the orders resting between 1% and 5% from the price come to about $12 million now, against about $17 million at the start of 2025 ^[16]. On the morning of Oct. 10 last year bitcoin traded at $122,600. Within hours it was below $105,000 ^[2], and more than $19 billion of leveraged positions were liquidated that day ^[1]. The fall was about 14% ^[17], well past the band where depth has grown.

Close to the price, the improvement is large. Bitcoin's 1% depth on crash day works out to about $6.7 million ^[19]. That is slightly below the $6.9 million of January 2025, and it compares with $11.7 million on Oct. 7 ^[4]. "The majors' deepening is real capital, not a price effect," CoinDesk Researcher Saksham Diwan said ^[8].

Altcoins have moved the opposite way in dollar terms. Depth in CoinDesk's altcoin basket was greatest on Jan. 1, 2025, and has been lower on every date measured since ^[10]. Within 5% of the price it is down about a third, to around $2 million, and within 1% it has fallen about a sixth ^[11]. Working back from the one-third fall puts the basket's 5% depth at the start of 2025 near $3 million ^[20].

"Market makers have returned to majors, with liquidity above pre-crash levels, whilst altcoin liquidity continues to trend down as a whole," said Joshua de Vos, manager at CoinDesk Research ^[15]. The capital those firms added to bitcoin went into the tightest band and stayed there ^[6]. The altcoin dollar series shows none of it ^[10].

Weekly spot volume has roughly doubled from an August low of around $135 billion ^[14]. If that continues, market makers have more flow to quote against, and some of it could reach altcoin books. If it stalls, the data show nothing that would reverse an altcoin decline running since early 2025 ^[10]. The bitcoin gain can also shrink faster than it built. This week's one-day drop in 1% depth took about $1.4 million out of the book ^[18]. That still left it near $10.3 million, above January's $9 million ^[4].

We think the evidence supports the split and a narrower version of the risk claim. Per dollar sold, altcoins now move more easily than they did in January 2025, and bitcoin and ether books absorb small trades better than they did then, given CoinDesk's definition of depth as the volume a large trade can absorb without moving the market ^[3]. Against a crash-sized bitcoin move, the book within 5% of the price is no deeper than in January 2025 ^[6], and the slice between 1% and 5% is thinner ^[16]. That view is wrong if CoinDesk's next reading shows altcoin dollar depth rising, or bitcoin's 5% depth climbing clearly above its January 2025 level.