I’m confused by your application of the word spread. Typically that term is used for the bid ask delta. ETHBTC being 0.03275btc today is more commonly a ratio or exchange rate.
I also don’t find value talking about when all ETHBTC market pairs shut down and do zero volume. Again that likely won’t happen in the next 20 yrs.
Sorry I can see how you find that confusing. Market makers "spread" their trading. If you buy bitcoin a market maker sells it to you, that market maker is now short bitcoin. To offset his position he goes and buys ETH (or other shitcoin). That makes him -1BTC +1ETH. To close out that position that market maker goes and sells the ETH-BTC spread. Selling that spread (-1ETH +1BTC) offsets the original -1BTC +1ETH spread. This makes him flat and he nets his dollars profit
Thread collapsed
Like the ETH-BTC spread is an actual tradable product on most exchanges. You can buy or sell it, it's a synthetic market. Maybe not retail but if you watch it on coinbase you will see the market makers doing their thing arbitraging.
Thread collapsed