One Year After the 10/10 Crash: Bitcoin and Ether Liquidity Has Rebuilt, Altcoins Lag

One year ago today, on October 10, 2025, crypto markets went through one of the most violent single-day selloffs in their history. Bitcoin fell from roughly $122,000 to around $105,000 within hours, and about $19 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated across the market. Twelve months on, new research from CoinDesk shows that liquidity in the two largest assets has rebuilt beyond pre-crash levels, while the rest of the altcoin market looks thinner than it did before the crash.

What happened on October 10, 2025

The trigger was macro, not crypto-specific. According to CoinDesk’s reporting, the selloff began during Friday evening U.S. trading after President Trump announced 100% tariffs on Chinese imports. Bitcoin had set a record above $126,000 only days earlier, and the market was heavily positioned for further gains.

That positioning is what turned a sharp drop into a cascade. Analysts quoted by CoinDesk pointed to near-record open interest in derivatives, with many traders betting that Bitcoin’s traditional four-year cycle would carry prices much higher. When the tariff news hit, forced selling from liquidated long positions fed on itself, and order books, particularly in smaller tokens, could not absorb the flow.

Bitcoin and ether order books are deeper now

CoinDesk Research compared market depth across major centralized exchanges on four dates: January 1, 2025, the crash day itself, January 1, 2026, and October 7-8, 2026. The headline finding is that market makers have come back to the majors.

• Bitcoin: Depth within 1% of the price stood at about $11.7 million as of October 7, 2026, roughly 75% more than the approximately $9 million seen on crash day and well above the roughly $6.9 million recorded on January 1, 2026. At 5% from the price, depth was around $24 million.
• Ether: Depth within 0.5% of the price has more than doubled since the crash to about $4.2 million, and depth within 1% is up roughly 75% to about $5.3 million.

Deeper order books matter because they determine how much selling a market can absorb before prices gap lower. More resting liquidity near the current price does not prevent drawdowns, but it can make the kind of air-pocket moves seen last October less severe for the largest assets.

Altcoins are the weak spot

The picture is different further down the market. CoinDesk’s data shows that dollar depth at 5% from the price for other altcoins has fallen roughly one-third since January 2025, to around $2 million, while depth at 1% is down about one-sixth. In practical terms, a sell order of a given size moves many smaller tokens further today than it would have before the crash.

Overall trading activity has also cooled sharply. Weekly spot volume averaged about $801 billion during the crash week, according to CoinDesk Research, compared with about $279 billion over the four weeks ending September 27, 2026, a decline of about 65%. Volume touched a low of around $135 billion in August.

Where the market stands today

Bitcoin was trading around $82,500 to $82,800 on Friday morning, according to CoinDesk and CoinGecko data, roughly flat on the day and about 2% below its level a week ago. That is a long way beneath last year’s record, and the recent tone has been cautious. We covered the latest leverage flush earlier this week when Bitcoin slipped to $84K amid more than $550M in liquidations, and macro pressure from rising yields has been a recurring theme, as noted in our report on the 10-year Treasury yield hitting its highest level since 2007.

What traders say has and hasn’t changed

Commentators interviewed by CoinDesk argued that traders now have better visibility into order books, open interest and funding rates than they did a year ago. But the structural drivers behind the crash remain in place: perpetual futures still dominate short-term price discovery, and leverage remains widely available. One analyst suggested the four-year halving cycle has lost much of its predictive power, with economic and political forces now playing a larger role in price action.

The practical lessons offered were familiar ones: be cautious with leverage, keep an eye on positioning data such as open interest and funding, and consider self-custody rather than leaving all holdings on exchanges. If you are moving coins off an exchange, our guide to setting up a 2-of-3 Bitcoin multisig wallet covers one of the more robust setups.

The bottom line

A year after the 10/10 crash, the largest crypto markets are structurally sturdier in one measurable way: there is more liquidity sitting near the price for Bitcoin and ether. The smaller end of the market has moved the other way, with thinner books and lower volumes. For anyone holding altcoins, that divergence is worth keeping in mind, since thin liquidity is exactly what turned last year’s selloff into a crash.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.