What is Liquidity?
How easily an asset can be bought or sold without moving its price. Thin liquidity means wide spreads, slippage, and prices that a single large order can shove around.
Liquidity is how much you can buy or sell without moving the price — the depth of real orders waiting in the market. Bitcoin absorbs millions of dollars with barely a ripple; a small altcoin can drop 10% because one holder sold. Liquidity is invisible when you have it and expensive the moment you don't.
It shows up in every cost this site measures: tight spreads are liquidity, low slippage is liquidity, and the ability to exit a position at all is liquidity — the graveyard is full of coins whose holders discovered too late that a price quote isn't an exit. One honest caveat: reported volume proxies liquidity but can be faked via wash trading; order-book depth is the harder-to-fake measure.
See it in practice
Related terms: Slippage · Spread · Wash trading · full glossary
FAQ
Why does liquidity matter if I'm holding long-term?
Because holding ends with selling — and liquidity determines whether the price on the screen is achievable for your size when that day comes. Illiquidity is a cost you've already incurred but haven't paid yet.
How do I judge a coin's liquidity?
Daily volume relative to market cap, spread width on major exchanges, and order-book depth near the price. On our screener, sorting by volume is the one-click approximation.
General information only, not financial advice. Definitions are maintained in our fact database and reviewed with the daily rebuild.