30 December 2023
Kaiko, a blockchain analytics platform, conducted an investigation that revealed the complexities of liquidity across the biggest crypto assets, with some lower market cap assets beating higher ones. According to its Q3 liquidity rankings, XRP and Dogecoin (DOGE) managed to beat out Solana and Cardano in liquidity rankings, coming in behind only Bitcoin and Ethereum. There were also some surprise numbers on the rankings, like BNB coming in 8th in terms of liquidity, and Litecoin also outperforming.
Kaiko Analysis Highlights Liquidity For Crypto Assets
The vast number of crypto assets has always brought out the idea among investors to rank their valuation on a scale of some sort, with the most adopted being the market cap. However, according to Kaiko, liquidity, along with other metrics like volume and market depth is a better way to measure a token’s real value apart from its market cap. This was best demonstrated by FTX’s token FTT, whose market was bloated to reach a peak of nearly $10 billion without having enough liquidity on exchanges to back this up.
According to its latest rankings, Bitcoin took up the first spot in liquidity. This wasn’t surprising, as Bitcoin has always held a tight reign over the crypto industry since its inception. Ethereum followed in second place in terms of liquidity to reiterate its position as the king of altcoins. However, Kaiko’s liquidity rankings started to digress from the market cap at the third position, with BNB underperforming massively to come in at 8th place.
Instead, XRP came in at 4th place, beating out the likes of Solana and Cardano (the Ethereum killers) on exchanges among traders. XRP’s liquidity boost in the quarter was thanks to the asset receiving regulatory clarity in the US. Dogecoin came in at 5th place, despite being 10th on market cap rankings, to solidify its position as the leader among meme coins. Litecoin came in at 5th place to complete the top five, despite being 18th in market cap rankings.
On the other hand, AVAX’s liquidity ranking dropped 11 places when compared to its market cap, while TON came in at 37th place despite being 9th by market cap during the quarter. Also, ATOM, UNI, APT, TON, SHIB, OKB, LEO, and CRO all fell more than five spots.
What Does Liquidity Say About Dogecoin And Crypto Assets?
Kaiko’s measure of liquidity included the spread and the average daily trading volume on different exchanges. The analytics platform also included two different market depth levels; 0.1% for higher frequency traders and 1% for longer-term holders.
In terms of trading volume, BTC came in first place while ETH and XRP followed suit. However, SOL beat DOGE in this metric with around $2 billion in the quarter.
The bottom line is that greater liquidity often precedes greater success over the longer term for cryptocurrencies. Q4 2023 should tell a strong tale in terms of crypto liquidity, as most cryptocurrencies registered new yearly highs in terms of market cap.
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