The cryptocurrency market continues to struggle with liquidity fragmentation, leading to persistent price discrepancies between exchanges.

According to a recent Kaiko report, these spreads are decreasing over time, but they are still prominent on smaller, less liquid exchanges, especially during market events like the recent sell-off last week.

Slippage occurs when the expected price of a market order differs from the execution price and is an important liquidity indicator.

During the August 5 sell-off, Kaiko calculated that most exchanges saw an increase in slippage in $100,000 Bitcoin buy orders. Notably, this spike was much more pronounced on some exchanges and trading pairs.

Zaif's BTC-JPY pair saw the highest slippage, while KuCoin's BTC-EUR pair exceeded 5%. Meanwhile, liquid stablecoin pairs commonly listed on BitMEX and Binance.US also saw significant gains.

Trading PairsSlippage BTC-JPY (Zaif)8%BTC-EUR (KuCoin)5%BTC-USD (BitMEX)2%BTC-USD (Binance.US)4%

 

The report also highlights that the impact on liquidity can vary not only between exchanges, but also between trading pairs within the same exchange.

“For example, Coinbase’s BTC-EUR pair is significantly less liquid than its BTC-USD pair. This difference can lead to extreme volatility during periods of heightened market activity, as seen in March when Coinbase’s BTC-EUR pair price diverged significantly from the broader market and market depth dropped sharply.”

Furthermore, BTC prices on Binance.US have diverged significantly from more liquid platforms, as the platform faced reduced liquidity following the SEC lawsuit in June 2023. Binance.US currently processes just $20 million in daily trading volume, down from $400 million at the beginning of 2023.

Liquidity also increased on weekdays, especially in the BTC-USD market, following the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States. This trend amplifies the risk of sharp price swings on weekends during times of market stress.

Despite these challenges, crypto platforms have invested heavily in infrastructure, allowing them to handle increased trading volumes without disruption. During the recent sell-off, BTC-USD and BTC-USDT trading volumes hit record highs on Bybit and reached levels after the FTX collapse on Coinbase.

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