Home›Crypto›Market Structure›Institutional traders make up 72% of Wintermute spot O…

Institutional traders make up 72% of Wintermute spot OTC flow

Wintermute data show institutional spot-flow share rose from 61% in H2 2025 and 59% in H1 2025, while liquidity participation in the market’s “long tail” weakened.

Reported · Written up by our desk · Market Structure

Institutional investors accounted for 72% of Wintermute’s spot over-the-counter, OTC flow in the first half of 2026, the crypto market maker said. Cointelegraph reports the share was higher than 61% in the second half of 2025 and 59% in the first half of the prior year, marking the highest level on Wintermute’s OTC desk records.

Wintermute said the next altcoin cycle could deliver fewer broad winners because institutional activity is concentrating in fewer tokens. It pointed to weaker participation across the market’s “long tail” and found liquidity clustering in assets favored by institutions.

The firm also reported that the number of unique tokens traded by its institutional counterparties grew 24% from H1 2024 to H1 2026, compared with 76% among retail clients. It added that institutional activity after a token’s price and volume surge faded after about one day, while retail activity typically stayed elevated for roughly three days.

Cointelegraph also notes related signals from other data sources, including CryptoQuant and Kaiko, that point to capital concentrating in a smaller set of altcoins. CryptoQuant previously described the usual rotation of Bitcoin profits into smaller assets as having “basically disappeared,” and other tracking shows concentration among the largest non-stablecoin altcoins.

Latest closeBitcoin $62,929.67 ▼2.8%

More like this

Sources