Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency, Ether, showcased superior price performance compared to Bitcoin in the third quarter, yet CoinGecko’s data highlight a decline in its liquidity during the same period. Liquidity reflects how easily an asset can be traded without significantly impacting its price.
Price Soars, Yet Market Depth Wanes
Throughout the third quarter, Ether’s value surged by 70%, whereas Bitcoin’s increased by 42%. Nevertheless, between July 6 and September 30, the median daily market depth of Ether remained between 35% to 45% of Bitcoin’s, a decrease from at least 60% during the corresponding period last year.
CoinGecko emphasizes that despite Ether’s price hike, it encountered a notable liquidity decline compared to last year, reaching a significant level of concern.
Market depth refers to the total dollar value of buy and sell orders pending at exchanges near the current price. Greater depth indicates larger trades are needed to move the price, while shallower markets can experience more volatile price shifts.
According to CoinGecko’s assessment, the depth surrounding Ether’s market price at 0.15% ranged between $13 million and $14 million, crucial for executing daily transactions and large orders without major market disruption.
Price Increase Falls Short of Enhancing Depth
Expectations that rising prices would naturally result in a more robust order book did not align with the data. While Ether witnessed a price surge, a commensurate increase in transaction depth was absent. CoinGecko noted that within this narrow range, Ether maintained relative liquidity, with over $1 million depth on both sides across most exchanges.
Contrasting Scenarios for SOL and XRP
The liquidity contraction wasn’t exclusive to Ether. CoinGecko reported a similar trend for Solana‘s native token, SOL, an emerging Ethereum competitor. SOL’s overall liquidity has markedly diminished since 2025.
For SOL, the depth around the market price at 2% had dropped from roughly $28 million on both sides of the order book last year to $20 million this year. This metric illustrates the market’s capacity to handle buying or selling pressure during volatile periods.
Meanwhile, the payment-focused cryptocurrency, XRP, maintained approximately $30 million in total depth. However, buy orders predominated the order book, with around $18 million against $14 million in sell orders during the assessed period.
Even though XRP’s market cap is about 40% larger than SOL’s, its depth around the 2% price range was lower; CoinGecko attributes this disparity to SOL’s average daily trading volume being 25% higher than XRP’s.
