One Year After the $19B Flash Crash, Bitcoin and Ether Recover as Altcoins Remain Exposed

Bitcoin and ether have seen their order-book liquidity strengthen over the past year, recovering beyond levels recorded before the October 2025 crash. Smaller cryptocurrencies have followed a different path, with declining market depth and spot trading volumes still far below their previous highs.

One year after crypto’s largest liquidation event, the market’s recovery remains uneven. Bitcoin and ether now have more buy and sell orders available near their prices than they did on crash day or at the beginning of 2026. Altcoins and spot markets, however, continue to lag behind.

On Oct. 10, 2025, bitcoin was trading near $122,600 after recently setting a record above $126,000. Within hours, it dropped below $105,000, with much of the decline happening in minutes during thin U.S. evening trading. The sell-off came after President Donald Trump announced 100% tariffs on Chinese imports, triggering more than $19 billion in leveraged liquidations in a single day.

To track the recovery, CoinDesk Research compared order-book depth on major centralized exchanges across four dates: Jan. 1, 2025, Oct. 10, 2025, Jan. 1, 2026, and this week. Market depth measures the dollar value of buy and sell orders close to the current price. Higher depth means the market can generally absorb larger trades without significant price movements.

Bitcoin’s order book has become deeper than at any of the earlier comparison points. On Oct. 7, approximately $11.7 million in orders sat within 1% of its market price, around 75% above the level recorded on crash day. The figure also exceeds the roughly $9 million seen at the start of 2026 and $6.9 million at the beginning of 2025.

The improvement is not simply the result of price movements. Bitcoin trades at roughly one-third below its pre-crash level, indicating that the higher dollar value of available orders reflects additional capital committed by market makers.

Most of the increase is concentrated close to the market price, where market makers typically place their most active quotes. At a distance of 5% from the price, bitcoin’s order-book depth remains around $24 million, broadly unchanged from January 2025.

Ether has recorded an even stronger rebound in certain ranges. Liquidity within 0.5% of its price has more than doubled since the crash to approximately $4.2 million. Within 1%, depth has risen by around 75% to roughly $5.3 million, surpassing levels recorded at the beginning of both 2025 and 2026.

CoinDesk Researcher Saksham Diwan said the increased liquidity in the two leading cryptocurrencies represents genuine capital returning to the market rather than a price-related effect.

Recent volatility has nevertheless tested these gains. Between Oct. 7 and Oct. 8, bitcoin’s depth within 1% of its price declined by approximately 12% during a market sell-off. Ether’s liquidity also weakened slightly in its narrowest price range, although orders farther from the current price increased.

Altcoins have continued to lose ground. CoinDesk Research’s basket of smaller cryptocurrencies recorded its highest dollar-denominated order-book depth on Jan. 1, 2025, with liquidity declining at every subsequent measurement point.

Depth within 5% of altcoin prices has fallen by about one-third since early 2025 to roughly $2 million. Within 1% of prices, it has decreased by approximately one-sixth.

Measured in token units rather than dollars, altcoin liquidity looks more stable. It reached a peak on Jan. 1, 2026, and has declined only modestly since. Analysts said falling prices largely account for this apparent resilience, concealing the ongoing reduction in capital available to support trading.

Spot trading volumes have also remained subdued. CoinDesk Research data show that weekly spot volume on centralized exchanges averaged approximately $279 billion over the four weeks ending Sept. 27. That is nearly two-thirds below the $801 billion recorded during the week of the October 2025 crash.

Weekly volume fell to around $135 billion in August before recovering to nearly twice that level. Despite the rebound, trading activity remains well below the levels recorded during the crash period.

The rapid disappearance of liquidity in October 2025 raised questions about where capital would eventually return. The latest data suggest that bitcoin and ether have captured much of the recovery.

Joshua de Vos, CoinDesk’s head of research, said market makers have returned to the major cryptocurrencies, lifting their liquidity above pre-crash levels, while altcoin liquidity continues to weaken across the market.

De Vos expects the divide to persist into next year, with only a limited number of altcoins likely to escape the broader trend. He attributed the shift to institutional investors’ continued preference for bitcoin and ether, which remain dominant in institutional interest and trading volume.