Ethereum surges nearly 70% in Q3, but its order books thin out against Bitcoin

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Ethereum surges nearly 70% in Q3, but its order books thin out against Bitcoin

CoinGecko data shows ether outran Bitcoin last quarter while its market depth shrank to a fraction of Bitcoin’s

by
Vivian Nguyen

Oct. 5, 2026

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Ether had a great quarter. Its order books did not.

Ethereum’s native token posted a gain of nearly 70% in the third quarter of 2026, comfortably beating Bitcoin’s roughly 42% climb. But a CoinGecko analysis, cited by CoinDesk on October 5, 2026, found that the liquidity underneath that rally got noticeably thinner as prices rose.

A big rally on a shallower foundation

The CoinGecko data covers the period from July 6 to September 30. Over that stretch, ether outpaced Bitcoin by close to 28 percentage points on price.

CoinGecko measured median daily market depth within ±0.15% of the mid-price. By that measure, ETH’s depth now sits at only 35% to 45% of Bitcoin’s equivalent level. In the comparable period of 2025, that ratio was at least 60%.

In absolute terms, ETH’s depth in that tight band averaged around $13 to $14 million across the major exchanges studied. The analysis drew on data from eight major centralized exchanges.

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Most major trading venues still maintained more than $1 million in depth on both the bid and ask sides. Retail traders buying or selling modest amounts are unlikely to notice much difference.

With less money parked near the current price, big orders have to reach further up or down the book to get filled, which pushes the price around more than they might like.

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Why this pattern is unusual

Normally, rising prices and climbing trading volumes go hand in hand with deeper liquidity. Ether’s third quarter broke that pattern. Prices rose, volumes increased, and depth still contracted relative to Bitcoin.

Ether is not alone in this. CoinGecko found that Solana showed a similar decline in liquidity over the period. XRP went the other way. Its total depth held steady, with the balance tilted predominantly toward buyers.

On price, ether closed the quarter near $2,689 after touching intraday highs near $2,775. Bitcoin ended the period trading between $83,640 and $86,000, depending on the cutoff used.

What may have powered the move

The research points to returning inflows into US spot ETH ETFs as a likely driver of the rally. Net inflows reached approximately $3.1 billion, a reversal after outflows earlier in the year.

ETF demand can push prices higher without necessarily adding depth to the exchange order books that CoinGecko tracks. Fund flows and resting limit orders are not the same thing.

What this means for traders and the market

Thinner books mean higher slippage, the gap between the price you expect and the price you actually get. A trade of a given size in ETH is now more likely to nudge the market than an equivalent trade in BTC.

Desks executing big ETH orders may need to split trades into smaller pieces, spread them across venues, or stretch them out over time.

Shallow books can amplify rallies, because buyers chew through sell orders quickly. They can amplify selloffs for exactly the same reason.

The Solana parallel is worth watching. If thinning liquidity is showing up across several major non-Bitcoin assets at once, it raises the question of whether market makers are concentrating their capital more heavily in BTC. The XRP exception shows the trend is not universal.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.