How much one book could take
Could you turn a million USDC into euros in one go without moving the rate? On November 10, 2026, the answer depended on the exchange. The table adds up the buy orders sitting close to the midpoint on three public USDC/EUR order books, read between 10:13:50 and 10:13:51 UTC.
| Exchange | USDC bid within 0.1% of the midpoint | USDC bid within 1% |
|---|---|---|
| Kraken | 4,522,536 | 8,789,957 |
| Bitstamp | 494,639 | 1,004,046 |
| Coinbase | 319,933 | 840,985 |
Same coin, same currency, same minute, and at the tighter band Kraken’s book held about 14 times what Coinbase’s did. A million-USDC sale fits inside Kraken’s 0.1% band and runs far past it on the other two.
Bitcoin showed the same split. Kraken’s BTC/USD book held 158.4 BTC of bids within 1% of its midpoint, while Gemini’s held 62.9 BTC.
What the word means
The SEC’s investor glossary says liquidity “generally refers to how easily or quickly a security can be bought or sold in a secondary market,” and for a stock how fast shares change hands “without substantially impacting the stock price.” Exchange Kraken’s liquidity page puts it as how easily an asset trades “at a stable price on a given market.”
The phrase on a given market carries the point. The bid-ask spread is the price of the first unit you sell, and depth decides how many more you can sell before the rate gives way.
Volume is not depth
Trading volume is the number most often quoted, and it answers a different question. By Kraken’s own ticker feed, read at 10:14 UTC, 128.1 million USDC had changed hands against the euro over the previous day, across 31,048 trades. Set that beside the book from a few seconds earlier, with about 4.5 million bid inside the 0.1% band.
Volume records what changed hands over a day. Depth is what you can sell into now, and only the order book shows it. The SEC glossary also defines liquidity risk, the chance that “investors won’t find a market for their securities”, which can stop them selling when they want to.
What EU rules require
MiCA Article 76(1)(f) makes each crypto trading platform write into its operating rules the conditions a token must meet to stay available for trading, “including liquidity thresholds and periodic disclosure requirements.” The regulation leaves the level to each platform’s rulebook.
Before a large conversion, compare the bids near the top of the book on two or three venues rather than the volume figure on the price page.