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Institutional clientele contributed 72% of Wintermute’s spot over-the-counter (OTC) trading volume in the first six months of 2026, an all-time high for the firm. This is an indication that large transactions in the crypto world are gradually shifting away from public exchange order books.
Wintermute made its announcement of the figure on July 30, an increase from 59% during the first half of 2025 and 61% during the second half. The OTC volume has also surged faster than activity among centralized exchanges as big investors began seeking more subtle avenues for making massive crypto moves.
For hedge funds, asset managers, corporate treasuries, and other professional investors, the new trend signals that substantial liquidity has started to reside on private trading desks and in exchange-traded products rather than only on the order books utilized by most retail traders.
Wintermute sees record 72% institutional OTC share
According to the Wintermute report, the 72% figure is the largest institutional share recorded across all tokens on its OTC desk. Institutional clients of the company are made up of hedge funds, digital asset treasuries, asset managers, and family offices. The company trades more than $10 billion daily on more than 70 exchanges, allowing its client composition to provide insights about the activities of professionals in the industry.
It is important to highlight that the provided figure represents the transactions being performed on Wintermute’s platform and not those in the global spot market. Hence, it does not indicate that institutions are responsible for 72 percent of the total Bitcoin trading. Prices are still formulated through exchanges, ETFs, the derivatives market, miners, and long-term investors.
What this data indicates is that large-sized players feel more and more relaxed about making trades at private venues.
Why does size prefer a private desk
The benefit of OTC trading for large buyers and sellers is privacy. Investors may negotiate directly with a liquidity supplier rather than revealing an enormous transaction capable of influencing the market. This could lead to decreased slippage, confidentiality of trading intentions, and flexible settlement options.
And this is where the significance of market makers presents itself. Citadel Securities claims its responsibility to provide two-sided quotes and get the profits from the spread while offering liquidity in all market circumstances. Similarly, Jane Street conducts a crypto business through JCX, a trading platform that it initiated in 2018 and which allows for continuous trading and daily settlements.
These companies help create the infrastructure that allows institutional payments to take place, and their involvement in crypto is increasing.
Demand up, trading thinner
What is more fascinating about the situation is how institutional demand and overall trading activity do not correspond.
In a market update published on May 11, Wintermute reported that Bitcoin had broken the $80,000 mark for the first time since January, while on-chain spot volumes languished at two-year lows. According to the firm’s observations, however, the open interest surged by almost $10 billion in a month, although they categorized it as a short squeeze rather than large-scale on-chain buying.
Coinbase’s July report pointed to a similar environment, with altcoin open interest dominance stuck around 0.6-0.7 and the market remaining heavily concentrated in major assets. Kaiko found that the 10 largest altcoins accounted for 63% of altcoin volume in 2025, up from roughly 50% earlier in the year.
CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju went further in June, saying Bitcoin-to-altcoin rotation had “basically disappeared.”
What institutions are buying, and what they skip
The concentration can also be identified in what institutional clients choose to trade. According to Wintermute, the number of unique tokens traded by the institutional counterparty increased by only 24% from the first half of 2024 to the first half of 2026. In contrast, retail traders expanded their offering by 76%. Meaning, big players are still focused on Bitcoin and Ether, while small traders are interested in the market’s long tail.
Institutions are also increasingly trading exposure rather than simply buying tokens. Wintermute reported that altcoin options notional rose about 3.4 times from the second half of 2025, with clients using options for yield as well as directional exposure.
Spot ETFs reinforce that trend. Wintermute recorded $623 million in ETF inflows in early May, including $194 million into Morgan Stanley’s new Bitcoin fund during its first month. Much of that demand never needs to appear on a public crypto exchange book.
What to watch next
The central issue is if institutional participation will still remain limited to the biggest assets in the market.
If institutional investment is increasing in Solana, stablecoin infrastructure and tokenized assets, then liquidity might eventually have a larger scope. If not, institutional crypto might stay limited to high-end investments, while retail investments take over lower segments of the market.
Wintermute is positioning for new sources of demand either way. On May 29, it entered prediction markets as a liquidity provider as event-contract volume surpassed $60 billion for 2026.
“Prediction markets have the demand profile of a major asset class but the liquidity profile of an early-stage one,” said Jake Ostrovskis, Wintermute’s head of OTC trading.
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