Bitcoin’s inability to reclaim $90,000 exposes a deep structural fracture that could trap investors during the next unwind

Bitcoin’s inability to reclaim $90,000 is looking less like a debate about narratives and more like a test of market plumbing.

For the better part of 2025, the surface story was institutional momentum. The US moved toward a workable regulatory perimeter, capped by President Donald Trump signing the GENIUS Act to federalize payment stablecoins.

At the same time, spot Bitcoin ETFs normalized exposure within brokerage channels, and the broader crypto economy traded as if it had finally graduated into the asset-class mainstream.

This resulted in a rally that drove Bitcoin to a new all-time high of $126,223 in early October.

However, by Oct. 10, the microstructure deteriorated as a violent unwind erased roughly $20 billion in leveraged positions across crypto venues. This forced BTC's price down by 30% from its 2025 highs, and the asset registered its first red October in several years.

Since then, the Bitcoin market has ground lower thanks to thinned liquidity, lower trading volumes, and larger holders selling into rebounds.

These dynamics go a long way toward explaining why Bitcoin is currently struggling below $90,000, rather than treating that level as a staging point for new highs.

The Oct. 10 hangover

The liquidation event mattered because it fundamentally altered the risk appetite of the marginal liquidity provider.

In a deep market, volatility is painful but tradable. Market makers quote size near the mid-price, arbitrage desks keep venues aligned, and large flows clear without forcing price gaps.

After Oct. 10, the incentives flipped. Dealers tightened risk limits, and the market began to trade with significantly reduced shock absorption.

That brittleness is evident in the behavior of larger holders. CryptoSlate previously reported how BTC whales have continued offloading the top crypto, thereby dampening market momentum even after the leverage purge.

Moreover, the market shift is also evident in data on Bitcoin's volumes and depth.

CoinDesk Data’s November exchange review indicates centralized exchange activity has retreated to its lowest level since June.

According to the firm, the combined spot and derivatives volumes across centralized exchanges dropped 24.7% month over month to $7.74 trillion, the sharpest monthly decline since April 2024.

Spot volumes slid 21.1% to $2.13 trillion, while derivatives volumes fell 26.0% to $5.61 trillion. Notably, the derivatives market share slipped to 72.5%, the lowest since February 2025.

A market can print high prices on low turnover, but the dynamic changes immediately when participants need to move size.

Depth is down

The clearest warning signal for Bitcoin is its current market depth, which measures the visible buy and sell interest near the mid-price.

This is where the “trillion-dollar illusion” becomes tangible. Market capitalization is merely a mark-to-market calculation; liquidity is the ability to convert intent into execution without paying a hidden tax in slippage.

When order books are thick and spreads are predictable, institutional strategies, rebalancing on schedule, hedging without slippage shocks, are feasible. Liquidity compounds: dense flow invites tighter quoting from market makers, lowering costs and pulling in more participation.

The reverse, however, is self-fulfilling. Thin liquidity drives up trading costs, forces participants to step back, and ensures the next shock leaves a deeper scar.

Data from Kaiko shows Bitcoin’s aggregated 2% market depth has fallen roughly 30% from its 2025 high. In practical terms, this is the difference between a market that can absorb a fund rebalancing without drama and one that gaps through levels when that same flow hits.

A snapshot from Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, illustrates the point.

According to Kaiko, both 0.1% and 1% market depth on BTC pairs have risen significantly over the past few years, eclipsing pre-2022 crash highs.

As of Bitcoin’s last record high in October 2025, 1% market depth on Binance exceeded $600 million.

Since then, that depth has dropped to under $400 million as of press time.

Binance is not a blanket proxy for global liquidity, but it serves as a useful bellwether for the health of the visible order book.

However, when the world’s leading venue shows thinner books near the mid-price, it explains why rallies stall the moment momentum traders encounter real selling.

ETF flows and the migration of liquidity off-exchange

The second structural shift involves where liquidity now lives, particularly as the ETF complex has matured.

Data from SosoValue shows that investors have pulled more than $5 billion from U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs since Oct. 10.

In a deeper tape, a demand shock of that magnitude is absorbed gradually. In a thinner market, it creates a “push-pull” dynamic in which price stalls at round numbers because every rally runs into a wall of redemptions, profit-taking, and whale distribution.

Meanwhile, regulatory plumbing changes have further altered how flows enter and exit the system. In July, the SEC voted to permit in-kind creations and redemptions for crypto ETP shares, a move designed to align these products with commodity ETPs.

Operationally, in-kind flexibility gives authorized participants (APs) more options for sourcing and delivering Bitcoin, including via internal inventory, OTC counterparties, and prime-broker channels.

While this reduces friction under normal conditions, it reinforces a broader trend: liquidity is increasingly being internalized away from visible exchange order books.

This migration explains the current paradox: Bitcoin remains a massive, institutionally held asset, yet it feels mechanically fragile.

Private liquidity is not obligated to display itself during a panic. When stress hits, spreads widen, sizes shrink, and activity ricochets back onto public venues precisely when public depth is at its weakest.

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