B2PRIME Report Flags Volatility, Automation and Crypto Liquidity as Key Themes for 2026
B2PRIME Group has published its latest “Liquidity Pulse” report, arguing that a volatile 2025 recalibrated trading activity across metals, FX, equities and digital assets—and that the liquidity winners in 2026 will be providers and venues capable of handling faster markets, tighter risk controls and more automated execution. The report frames last year as a collision of “macroeconomic shocks and rapid technological innovation,” with liquidity conditions shifting as volatility changed investor positioning and algorithms expanded their share of flows.
In its 2025 recap, B2PRIME lists the forces it says dominated liquidity formation: “Elevated volatility,” “Safe-haven demand,” “Shifting currency dynamics,” “Growth in institutional crypto adoption,” and the “Expansion of automated trading.” The report links those trends to a market structure reality that is increasingly multi-asset and continuous, where execution quality and resilience matter as much as price. It also argues that the mix of geopolitics, monetary policy surprises and technology adoption produced sharper swings and more episodic liquidity—forcing traders to pay closer attention to when and where depth appears.
The central message for 2026 is that liquidity is becoming more concentrated around institutional-grade infrastructure. B2PRIME says that “liquidity has increasingly consolidated around providers capable of delivering stable and institutionally structured execution across metals, crypto and major FX pairs,” and adds that, in its view, “the role of a true Prime liquidity partner became central to operational resilience and competitiveness during 2025.” In practical terms, that implies brokers and buy-side firms will continue migrating away from fragile, single-source setups toward diversified connectivity, consistent pricing and lower-latency routing that can hold up through fast markets.
Takeaway
B2PRIME’s 2026 outlook is less about “what will rally next” and more about how liquidity will behave: more automated, more episodic around macro catalysts, and more concentrated around prime-grade, multi-asset execution providers built for resilience.
Metals and Crypto Became the Liquidity Anchors, With ETFs and Stablecoins Driving Flow
On metals, the report describes gold as the defining asset of 2025, citing an early-year price around “$2,750–2,800 per ounce” and a rapid move toward the “$3,150 threshold” by late March, before a later-year surge that pushed above $4,000. B2PRIME links the move to safe-haven demand and macro uncertainty, but also points to policy and balance-sheet factors: it notes a “dovish monetary policy” backdrop and says concerns rose as “U.S. debt…surpassed $38 billion,” while central bank buying increased. For liquidity providers and brokers, the implication is straightforward: when macro risk dominates, metals can become both a hedge and a volume engine, concentrating flows in the most liquid venues and feeds.
Silver, in B2PRIME’s telling, outperformed on a different narrative—industrial demand meeting constrained supply. The report says silver began the year “at around $30 per ounce” and by December “crossed $60 for the first time,” attributing the rally to manufacturing demand from photovoltaics, EVs and electronics alongside limited supply growth. It argues the market remained structurally tight, stating that “for the fifth consecutive year through 2025, the market recorded a structural supply deficit,” estimating a 2025 deficit range of “~117 and ~149 million ounces.” The liquidity angle is that commodity pricing is increasingly sensitive to tightness and positioning, which can amplify intraday moves when depth thins.
In crypto, the report portrays 2025 as a maturity milestone, saying major assets “established themselves as a more mature and trustworthy market,” with Bitcoin and Ethereum remaining liquidity hubs. It highlights stablecoin growth as a key liquidity transmission channel, stating, “Total stablecoin market capitalization exceeded $300 billion by October 2025, up from around $200- $ 205 billion earlier in the year,” and adds that supply reached “nearly $314 billion” amid regulatory clarity, “including the GENIUS Act.” ETFs are described as the primary institutional on-ramp: “ETFs remained the central driver of capital flows to cryptocurrencies,” with Bitcoin ETF assets “around ~ $121 billion globally as of late 2025.” If that framework holds, 2026 crypto liquidity may hinge less on retail bursts and more on regulated wrappers, stablecoin settlement rails and consistent institutional risk budgets.
FX and Equities Showed Regional Divergence as Automation and 24/7 Pressure Built
In FX, B2PRIME argues liquidity conditions shaped how currencies responded to inflation and rate differentials. It says the dollar remained central to trading but that “its dominance in international settlements has lessened,” while the DXY “gradually decreased from the high of 109 to the lows of 97-98.” For the euro, it points to inflation cooling “to 2% in November,” helping drive EUR/USD “from lows of 1.04 to a high of 1.17,” while warning that liquidity can still thin around weaker data releases. The yen is framed as a liquidity stress case study: during calm periods it supported carry trades, but “when global volatility increased…yen positions unwound quickly,” producing sharp reversals as liquidity temporarily dried up.
Equities, by contrast, are presented as a story of regional divergence moderated by depth. B2PRIME cites U.S. gains of roughly “13%” for the S&P 500, “about 17%” for the Nasdaq and “6%” for the Dow by early December, arguing that “deep liquidity in U.S. equity ETFs and futures” helped smooth volatility and absorb institutional flows. In Europe, it notes double-digit gains—citing the DAX up “close to…19.9%” and the Euro Stoxx 50 up “around 16.1%”—while adding that “thinner intra-day liquidity made European stocks more sensitive to headline news than U.S. peers.” In Asia, it highlights the Nikkei up “roughly by 15.2%” and points to net foreign outflows of “~$10 billion in November,” linking flow reversals to tech valuation concerns and liquidity drains.
Looking into 2026, the report’s most consequential lens is structural: automation and resilience. It says the algorithmic trading market was estimated at “$3.85 billion in 2025,” projecting growth to “$13.07 billion by 2035,” and argues that automated execution is now core across asset classes—citing algorithms facilitating “more than 70% of transactions in cryptocurrency trading,” and machine execution around “30%” of orders on the largest exchanges in traditional markets, and “more than 35%” in FX. It also warns that the shift toward “24/7 trading” increases round-the-clock strain on execution, monitoring and risk systems. In short, B2PRIME’s 2026 outlook is a market plumbing thesis: whichever firms can maintain robust liquidity, controls and uptime through continuous, automated markets will be best positioned—while “no investment advice, recommendations, or future predictions are provided,” and “past performance does not indicate future results.”
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