Altcoins left behind

For altcoins, the picture is reversed. In CoinDesk Research’s basket of altcoins, dollar depth was greatest on Jan. 1, 2025, and has been lower on each date measured since.

Depth at 5% from the price is down about a third since the start of 2025, to around $2 million. Closer to the price, at 1%, it has fallen by about a sixth.

Measured in tokens, alt depth looks healthier: it peaked on Jan. 1 this year and has eased only modestly since. But analysts said that token-unit recovery was mostly due to falling prices, masking a steady erosion in committed capital.

Spot trading thins out

Spot trading has not recovered. Weekly spot volume on centralized exchanges averaged around $279 billion over…