How crypto markets work

A market that never closes

Crypto trades 24 hours a day, seven days a week, across many exchanges at once. Prices for the same coin can differ slightly between venues, and liquidity is often thinner at weekends and overnight.

What drives prices

Crypto responds to many of the same forces as other risk assets — interest rates, global liquidity and risk appetite — plus some of its own:

• Flows into and out of large products and exchanges.
• Supply mechanics, such as Bitcoin’s scheduled issuance changes.
• Leverage: when many traders are over-leveraged, forced liquidations can accelerate moves in both directions.
• News and sentiment, which can spread and reverse very quickly.

Bitcoin, Ethereum and the rest

Bitcoin is the largest and most liquid crypto-asset. Ethereum is a platform on which many applications and tokens are built. Smaller coins (altcoins) are usually far more volatile and less liquid, and many fail entirely — liquidity should be one of the first things you check.