Liquidity

Liquidity is what decides whether a price is real. A quoted price is achievable for a small order and often not for a large one, and the gap between the two is the whole subject: order-book depth, where that depth sits, who is providing it, and how quickly it disappears when conditions turn. Most dramatic price moves in crypto are liquidity events described as sentiment.

What we track on this desk

• Order-book depth. How much can actually trade near the quoted price, on which venue, and how that changes across the day.
• Exchange balances. How much of an asset sits on trading venues and is therefore immediately sellable, versus in custody or self-custody.
• Derivatives conditions. Funding rates, open interest and the leverage that turns an ordinary move into a liquidation cascade.
• Market-maker behaviour. Who quotes, and when they stop — depth withdrawn ahead of a known event is a signal in itself.
• Stablecoin float. Where dollars sit on-chain, which sets what can be bought without touching a bank — see Stablecoins.

How to read a liquidity story here

Volume is not depth, and the two are used interchangeably almost everywhere. A market can trade billions in a day and still move several percent on a single large order, because volume measures what happened and depth measures what could. A story reporting 24-hour volume as evidence of a healthy market is answering a question nobody asked.

The same caution applies to liquidation figures. Reported liquidations count only what venues disclose, methodologies differ, and some exchanges publish throttled data — so totals from two trackers can differ by multiples for the same hour. Where they do, the story is Disputed and both are shown with their source named.

Where to go next

See the Markets desk for how these conditions show up in price, or the Verification Center for how publishers are counted.