Ethereum (ETH) rose approximately 70% in the third quarter of 2026, outpacing Bitcoin (BTC), which climbed about 42% over the same period. However, contrary to the price increase, data shows that Ethereum's liquidity on exchange order books actually shrank. This is according to overseas crypto media outlet CoinGape, citing CoinGecko's '2026 Centralized Exchange (CEX) Crypto Liquidity Report.'

Market Depth Falls to 35-45% of Bitcoin's

According to the report, while Ethereum's price rose sharply, the median daily market depth fell to just 35-45% of Bitcoin's. A year earlier, in the same period, the ratio had reached at least 60%. CoinGecko assessed that this decline is notable.

Market depth represents the dollar value of limit orders stacked within a certain range around the market's mid-price. According to CoinGape, CoinGecko tracked market depth within a 0.15% range of the mid-price, which translates to roughly a ±$3 range at current Ethereum prices. In this band, Ethereum's per-exchange liquidity was tallied at $13-14 million. On most exchanges, buy and sell orders each exceeded $1 million, so there was no problem trading Ethereum itself.

Bitcoin's Order Book Thins... Slippage Risk Grows

The difference was stark compared with Bitcoin, however. According to CoinGecko data cited by CoinGape, Bitcoin's median market depth reached roughly $29 million in buy orders and about $37 million in sell orders. This is about 50% higher than in 2025. In other words, while Ethereum's price surged, Bitcoin's order book liquidity actually thickened.

This gap may matter even more for investors trading large sums. CoinGape explained that orders of $10-15 million, which last year could have been absorbed within a narrow price range, now account for a much larger portion of Ethereum's visible order book liquidity. As a result, the risk of price slippage — something hard to see from price charts alone — has grown.

Among the eight exchanges surveyed by CoinGecko, MEXC was a clear exception. According to CoinGape, MEXC's market depth was only about $450,000, while the other exchanges each had buy and sell orders exceeding $1 million.

Why Prices Rose While Liquidity Fell

Ultimately, the key is the gap between Bitcoin and Ethereum. Bitcoin's order book liquidity thickened, while Ethereum's price rose by a much larger margin.

Institutional interest in Ethereum has not cooled. CoinGape reported that large-scale corporate purchases of Ethereum can drive spot prices up, but they do not continuously refill limit orders on centralized exchanges. This is cited as one of the factors explaining why order book liquidity declined even as Ethereum's price rose. The movement of funds into perpetual futures markets was also analyzed as a contributing factor. According to CoinGape, funds flowing into perpetuals do not remain in centralized exchanges' spot order books. CoinGape reported that this capital migration, combined with large-scale Ethereum purchases by certain companies, could explain why the price increase and the decline in market depth occurred simultaneously.

Ethereum's liquidity has not deteriorated to the point of causing trading problems. However, CoinGape noted that actual order book liquidity is thinner than one would expect from price charts alone. The explanation is that behind the large price gains of the third quarter, the liquidity gap with Bitcoin widened.

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