Institutional clients accounted for 72% of Wintermute's over-the-counter (OTC) spot trading volume in the first six months of 2026, a record high for the company. This indicates that large-scale cryptocurrency transactions are gradually shifting away from public exchange order books.
Wintermute announced this on July 30, showing an increase from 59% in the first half of 2025 and 61% in the second half of the year. OTC trading volume also grew faster than activity on centralized exchanges, as large investors began seeking more nuanced ways to execute large cryptocurrency trades.
For hedge funds, asset managers, corporate treasuries, and other professional investors, this new trend indicates that significant liquidity has begun concentrating on private trading venues and exchange products, rather than just in the order books used by most retail traders.
Wintermute Forecasts Record 72% Institutional Investor Share in OTC Market
According to the report, the 72% figure represents the largest institutional share recorded across all tokens on the company's OTC market. The company's institutional clients include hedge funds, digital asset treasuries, asset managers, and family offices. The company trades over $10 billion daily across more than 70 exchanges, allowing analysis of its client base composition and industry professionals' activities.
It is important to emphasize that this figure reflects transactions on the Wintermute platform, not the global spot market. Therefore, it does not indicate that institutional investors are responsible for 72 percent of the total Bitcoin trading volume. Prices are still formed by exchanges, ETFs, the derivatives market, miners, and long-term investors.
This data suggests that large players are becoming increasingly comfortable trading on private venues.
Why Do Non-Standard Sizes Prefer a Separate Desktop?
The advantage of OTC trading for large buyers and sellers is privacy. Investors can negotiate directly with a liquidity provider without disclosing information about a large trade that could move the market. This can lead to reduced slippage, hidden trading intentions, and flexible settlement options.
This is where the significance of market makers becomes apparent. Citadel Securities states its responsibility for providing two-sided quotes and profiting from the spread, while ensuring liquidity in any market conditions. Similarly, Jane Street conducts its cryptocurrency business through JCX, a trading platform launched in 2018 that enables continuous trading and daily settlements.
These companies help build the infrastructure that enables institutional payments, and their involvement in the cryptocurrency business is growing.
Demand Grows, Trading Volume Shrinks
What is even more striking in this situation is that institutional demand and overall trading activity are not aligned.
In a market review published on May 11, Wintermute reported that Bitcoin surpassed $80,000 for the first time since January, while on-chain spot trading volumes remained at a two-year low. However, the company observed that open interest grew by nearly $10 billion over a month, although they classified this as a "short squeeze" rather than large-scale on-chain purchases.
A July report from Coinbase pointed to a similar situation: altcoin open interest dominance remained at 0.6-0.7, and the market was still heavily concentrated on major assets. Kaiko found that the top 10 altcoins accounted for 63% of altcoin trading volume in 2025, compared to about 50% at the beginning of the year.
In June, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju went further, stating that the rotation from Bitcoin to altcoins had "practically disappeared."
What Are Institutions Buying and What Are They Avoiding?
Concentration can also be inferred from what institutional clients are trading. According to Wintermute, the number of unique tokens traded by institutional counterparties increased by only 24% from the first half of 2024 to the first half of 2026. Meanwhile, retail traders expanded their offerings by 76%. This means large players remain focused on Bitcoin and Ethereum, while smaller traders are interested in the market's "long tail."
Institutional investors are also increasingly trading by providing access to assets, not just buying tokens. Wintermute reported that the notional value of altcoin options grew approximately 3.4 times compared to the second half of 2025, with clients using options for both income generation and directional market exposure.
Spot ETFs confirm this trend. Wintermute recorded a $623 million inflow into ETFs in early May, including $194 million into a new Morgan Stanley Bitcoin fund within its first month of operation. Most of this demand never appears on a public cryptocurrency exchange.
What to Watch Next
The key question is whether institutional participation will remain limited to the market's largest assets.
If institutional investment in Solana, stablecoin infrastructure, and tokenized assets grows, liquidity could ultimately expand. Otherwise, institutional cryptocurrency investments may remain limited to high-yield projects, while retail investments occupy the lower market segments.
In any case, Wintermute is preparing for new sources of demand. On May 29, it entered prediction markets as a liquidity provider, as forecasted contract volume for events exceeded $60 billion for 2026.
"Prediction markets have the demand profile of a major asset class, but the liquidity profile of an early-stage market," said Jake Ostrovskis, head of OTC trading at Wintermute.
end-content
