Ethereum Outruns Bitcoin in Q3 With 70% Gain, But Order-Book Depth Shrinks Sharply
Key Takeaways
- •Ethereum gained 70% in the third quarter, surpassing Bitcoin's performance over the same period.
- •The report was published by CoinGape on October 5, 2026, covering July through September.
- •Order-book depth, a standard gauge of market liquidity, contracted sharply during the quarter.
- •The rally took place while the market's ability to absorb large trades was thinning, which can increase execution costs for sizable orders.
- •The source excerpt briefly noted former SEC Chair Jay Clayton, who filed the December 2020 lawsuit against Ripple over XRP, as back in the spotlight, without further details.
Ethereum posted a 70% gain in the third quarter, outperforming Bitcoin, according to a report by CoinGape that was carried by CryptoNews. Head-to-head quarterly comparisons between the market's two largest assets are a standard yardstick in crypto coverage, which makes the size of this quarter's gap one of its most closely watched performance figures.
Alongside the quarterly performance figure, the report flagged a sharp contraction in order-book depth — the total volume of buy and sell orders resting on exchanges around the prevailing market price. Depth is a standard measure of market liquidity: in a thinner order book, a trade of a given size can move the price by more than it would in a deeper market. That characteristic is why traders and institutions typically watch liquidity metrics such as depth alongside price: the cost of executing large orders depends on how much volume is resting near the market. Read together, the two data points mean the quarter's advance took place while the market's ability to absorb large trades was thinning.
Ethereum (ETH) is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, behind Bitcoin (BTC). The third quarter spans July, August, and September; the report was published on October 5, 2026, shortly after the quarter's close. Since order-book depth is measured continuously by exchanges and market-data services, subsequent readings can be compared against the levels described for this quarter to track how liquidity conditions develop.
Separately, the source page's excerpt carried a brief reference to Jay Clayton, the former Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) who launched the December 2020 lawsuit against Ripple over XRP ($XRP), noting that he is "back in the spotlight." The excerpt provided no further details on this item.
The original report is available on CoinGape: Ethereum Outruns Bitcoin in Q3 With 70% Gain, But Order-Book Depth Shrinks Sharply. The item was listed by CryptoNews: CryptoNews analytics listing.
