Ethereum (ETH) gained about 70% in the third quarter against 42% for Bitcoin (BTC), yet its exchange order books held less than half of Bitcoin's depth.
Key Points:
- ETH's order-book depth near the market price equaled 35% to 45% of Bitcoin's, down from at least 60% a year earlier.
- Bitcoin's depth grew almost 50% from 2025, while Solana's shrank and XRP's held steady.
- The depth data covers 60 days through Sept. 3, so it misses the quarter's final weeks.
ETH Depth Gap
The gap surfaced after data firm CoinGecko published its 2026 report on liquidity at centralized exchanges, a follow-up to a study it first ran in the second quarter of 2025. Researchers took daily order-book snapshots at eight venues, including Binance and Coinbase, over 60 days from Jul. 6 to Sept. 3, a window that closed almost four weeks before the quarter did. ETH rose 34.1% in that window, from $1,783 to $2,391.
Within 0.15% of the market price, a band of about $3 for ETH and $100 for Bitcoin, ETH's median depth came to roughly $13 million to $14 million, or 35% to 45% of Bitcoin's. A year earlier, the ratio was at least 60%.
Bitcoin moved the other way. Its books carried a median $29 million in bids and $37 million in asks across the eight exchanges, almost 50% more than in 2025, with Binance holding about a quarter of the total. CoinGecko said liquidity for the other four assets it studied was generally lower than a year earlier.
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CoinGecko Analysts' View
Traders usually expect a rally to deepen order books.
Depth is the standard gauge of liquidity. It counts the dollar value of buy and sell orders resting near the current price, so a thin book lets one big order push the price further than a trader planned.
CoinGecko's analysts said ETH remains fairly liquid close to the market price, with seven of the eight exchanges holding more than $1 million on each side, though they called the fall from last year "a stark drop."
They added that even the least liquid venues kept at least $500,000 in orders on the thinnest days, a level they called healthy for retail traders but possibly less attractive to institutions. Within 2% of the price, depth for Solana (SOL) fell from about $28 million per side to $20 million over the year, while XRP (XRP) held near $30 million with bids outweighing asks.
ETH Price Swings
ETH's rally followed two losing quarters, and the token started July near $1,570 before climbing after the U.S. Treasury said Aug. 19 it would double buybacks of long-dated bonds. U.S. spot ETH funds drew about $3.1 billion during the quarter through Sept. 25, reversing two quarters of outflows. ETH has since traded around $2,700, with Ethereum's Glamsterdam upgrade due on the Sepolia test network Oct. 6.
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