When you hear order book, a running list of buy and sell orders for a specific asset on an exchange. Also known as OB, it shows the price levels where traders are willing to trade and the quantities they want to move.
Understanding the liquidity, how easily an asset can be bought or sold without shifting its price too much starts with the order book. High liquidity means the book is thick—lots of orders close together—so you can execute large trades with minimal price impact. Low liquidity leaves gaps, and even a modest order can push the price, creating slippage. This relationship creates the semantic triple: order book requires liquidity data to reflect true market conditions. Another key piece is market depth, the cumulative volume of orders at each price level. Market depth lets you see how much buying or selling pressure sits at each tier, helping you gauge potential price movement before you place a trade. In short, order book encompasses market depth, and liquidity influences market depth.
Every trading pair, the combination of two assets you can exchange, like BTC/USDT has its own order book, and the shape of that book changes with volume, news, and trader sentiment. A fresh token launch might show a thin book with wild swings, whereas an established pair like ETH/USD often displays a deep, stable book. Exchanges compile these books in real time, feeding them to charts, algorithms, and even your mobile app. Knowing how to read the order book lets you spot hidden buying pressure, anticipate breakout levels, and set smarter limit orders. Below, you’ll find a range of articles that break down liquid staking tokens, DEX fee structures, tax rules, and more—all tied back to how order books drive price discovery across crypto and traditional markets.
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