Ethereum's increase in the third quarter surpassed Bitcoin, but its liquidity has clearly narrowed compared to Bitcoin

According to a report by CoinGecko, Ethereum's native token ETH outperformed Bitcoin in the third quarter, with a price increase of 70%, surpassing Bitcoin's 42% increase. However, during the same period, ETH's liquidity significantly narrowed compared to Bitcoin.

From July 6 to September 30, the average daily market median depth of ETH was only 35% to 45% of Bitcoin's, while it was at least 60% during the same period last year. Market depth measures the total dollar value of buy and sell orders within a certain price range. The depth of ETH within a 0.15% price range was between 13 million to 14 million dollars. CoinGecko stated that ETH still maintained good liquidity in this range, with most exchanges having both buy and sell side depths exceeding 1 million dollars.

The liquidity of other mainstream tokens is also thinning. Solana's SOL saw its depth within a 2% price range drop from about 28 million dollars per side last year to about 20 million dollars this year. XRP's total depth remained stable at around 30 million dollars, but the order book was biased towards buyers, with buy orders around 18 million dollars and sell orders around 14 million dollars. CoinGecko pointed out that XRP's market capitalization is about 40% higher than SOL, but the depth within the 2% price range is lower because SOL's average daily trading volume is still 25% higher than XRP.