Ethereum: Is its liquidity on exchanges in free fall?

The liquidity of Ethereum on centralized exchanges has fallen below half that of Bitcoin. CoinGecko measures this from order books, not displayed volumes. Indeed, near the price, there are fewer orders to absorb a large buy or sell.

Key Points

• The median depth of ETH is now only 35 to 45% of that of Bitcoin, down from at least 60% in 2025.
• At 0.15% of the price, the aggregated market offers only $13 to $14 million in orders.
• Seven out of eight platforms hold over a million dollars on each side. Binance leads, while MEXC lags behind.

Fewer orders close to the price

By analyzing the order books from July 6 to September 3, 2026, CoinGecko found that the liquidity of ether on centralized exchanges has fallen below half that of bitcoin. It now represents only 35 to 45%, compared to at least 60% in 2025.

$ETH liquidity is now less than half of $BTC's, down from at least 60% in 2025.

• Median liquidity is $13M-$14M at the 0.15% level (BTC: ±$100, ETH: ±$3)

• 7 of 8 exchanges hold over $1M per side, with @Binance leading at ±$3 pic.twitter.com/pEhi4NnDqA
--- CoinGecko (@coingecko) October 5, 2026

To arrive at this figure, the aggregator recorded daily buy and sell orders still pending on eight platforms: Binance, Bitget, Bybit, Coinbase, Crypto.com, Kraken, MEXC, and OKX. In practice, CoinGecko measured the depth of the order book, meaning the orders located very close to the current price. The thicker this stock is, the more a massive order could pass without significantly impacting the price.

For ether, CoinGecko narrows this window to 0.15% around the price, or about $3 on each side. Within this band, the eight platforms combined show a median of only $13 to $14 million in orders. For bitcoin, the comparable window is about $100 on each side, and CoinGecko finds $29 million in buys and $37 million in sells.

This gap does not come from a collapse of ether's order books. In dollars, they have remained roughly stable. It is the bitcoin order books that have thickened by nearly 50% in a year. The ratio is decreasing because bitcoin has gained ground, not because ether has lost its own.

Binance far ahead, rally on a thinner market

Seven of the eight platforms maintain over a million dollars in orders on each side of this narrow window. This is enough to absorb a typical order without moving the price. MEXC is the exception, around $450,000, a depth sufficient for an individual, but not for an institutional.

In the chart published on October 5, Binance leads the pack. Its median depth exceeds $10 million when moving about forty dollars away from the price, both for buying and selling. Bitget and OKX follow. Crypto.com and Kraken remain much thinner. The hierarchy is not fixed: a dominant exchange in median depth does not always offer the best order book on a given day.

The contrast with the price is stark. Ether gained nearly 70% in the third quarter, while bitcoin rose about 42%. The price has run faster than the order book that needs to absorb it. For a large order, this means more slippage: the same amount moves the price more.

The gap should be put into perspective. Part of ETH's liquidity has migrated to liquid staking derivatives, which are not included in this spot survey. The study does not cover DEXs or these tokens. It simply states that, on centralized spot and very close to the price, Bitcoin has widened the gap.

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