ボラティリティは測定可能であり、多くの戦略では管理可能であるため、金融機関はビットコインのボラティリティに耐えることを学びました。 What still prevents large allocations is the risk of market movement during entry or exit.

That’s why liquidity is more important than most headlines give it credit for.流動性は出来高と同じものではなく、市場が「健全である」という一般的な感覚以上のものです。

In the simplest possible terms, liquidity is the market’s ability to absorb trades at predictable costs.

The first layer is spot execution. The easiest number to estimate is the bid-ask spread, or the difference between the best bid and ask prices. The double-page spread is convenient, but it also holds it securely even if the book behind it is thin.深さは、単一レベルだけでなく、現在の価格付近でどのくらいのサイズが利用可能であるかを示すため、より有益です。

開高氏の研究では、価格が大きく変動する前に市場がどれだけの量を吸収できるかを測定する実用的な方法として、市場の深度 1% をよく使用します。 This means that the total buy and sell liquidity is within 1% of the mid-market price.

The second most important thing is the refill. Depth is not static, so your book may look fine until you get a large order. What separates resilient markets from fragile markets is how quickly liquidity returns after a market recovery. This is why it’s helpful to track the same metrics over time rather than relying on a single snapshot.

Liquidity changes hourly, which means it matters more than 24/7

Although cryptocurrencies are traded throughout the day, institutional liquidity is not equally available at all hours. Depth and spreads can vary from session to session, and there is a noticeable difference between periods with high participation and periods when market makers and large players are bidding less aggressively.

Amber Data’s report on temporal patterns in market depth shows how intraday and weekly rhythms affect the amount of liquidity available at different points in time. This means that while the market may appear liquid during overlapping business hours, it can be significantly thinner at other times, which impacts how far prices can move for a given trade size.

made this point in their own order book report on round number levels, noting that the thinner aggregation depth could make the market more sensitive around widely watched prices. One example cites a roughly 30% decline for a total depth of 2% from previous highs, framing the issue as a mechanical vulnerability rather than a price decision.

This is a useful case study because it shows that liquidity is more dependent on execution risk than on narrative claims.

Derivatives and ETFs can spot or reduce stress

As spot books thin, derivatives begin to become more important as forced flows become more destructive.無期限スワップと先物はレバレッジを集中させることができます。 A sudden increase in funding rates or an extended futures basis often means that positioning becomes crowded and sensitive to price movements.

その後、市場で清算取引が行われる場合、それらの清算は成行注文として実行されます。 Thin liquidity increases slippage and increases the likelihood of sharp gaps.

ETFs are important for another reason. They create a second venue for liquidity: a secondary market where shares are traded, and a primary market where authorized participants create and redeem shares. Under normal circumstances, creation and redemptions keep ETFs close to their holdings.

In the case of Bitcoin, strong liquidity in the secondary market may allow some investors to adjust their exposure without immediately pushing through the spot trading book.

On the other hand, large unidirectional flows resulting in large volumes of creation or redemptions can push activity back into the underlying market, especially if the venues that participants use for raising or hedging are illiquid.

The final layer is cash mobility. Institutions need more than just BTC liquidity. They need reliable cash and collateral rails that can be moved between venues and sit within a margin system. Stablecoins are at the heart of this, as the majority of spot and derivatives activity is still routed through stablecoin pairs and stablecoin collateral.

The market is already well aware of the impact that inter-exchange stablecoin trading has on price formation. Regulated rails and stablecoin-driven liquidity are becoming more important in shaping the functioning of crypto markets, so liquidity is not purely market-created, but partly policy-driven.

This is important because liquidity can be abundant in some places where financial institutions are not available, and thin in places where they are available. The result is a deeper market overall, but still incurs higher execution costs for certain participants.

Measure liquidity without the guesswork

The 1% depth for major venues, combined with the top-of-book spread and standardized slippage read at a fixed size, can tell you whether liquidity is expanding or contracting from week to week.

Perp’s funding and futures base can act as a temperature check for positioning. When leverage becomes expensive and crowded, spot conditions become more risky as forced flows can cause prices to fluctuate further.

Monitor ETF secondary market liquidity using simple inputs such as stock spreads and trading volumes, and match creations and redemptions when that data is available.

Finally, look at stablecoin liquidity and where it is concentrated across the venue. This is because cash liquidity is a prerequisite for reliable execution, especially when markets move rapidly.

When these layers improve together, they facilitate market-wide trades without turning flows into price events. If both weaken, financial institutions may still buy Bitcoin, but they will do so more cautiously, relying on wrappers and hedges, and treating short-duration trades as having higher execution risk.