Institutional clients accounted for 72% of Wintermute's spot over-the-counter (OTC) trading volume during the first six months of 2026, marking an all-time high for the digital asset trading firm. The figure signals a continued migration of large-scale crypto transactions away from public exchange order books and toward private trading venues — a structural shift that has accelerated since the January 2024 approval of US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs gave regulated investors familiar vehicles for crypto exposure.

Wintermute disclosed the data on July 30, showing a rise from 59% in the first half of 2025 and 61% in the second half of 2025. The firm's OTC volume has grown at a faster pace than activity on centralized exchanges, as large investors increasingly seek discreet channels for executing substantial crypto trades.

For hedge funds, asset managers, corporate treasuries, and other professional investors, the trend suggests that significant liquidity now resides on private trading desks and through exchange-traded products rather than exclusively on the order books used primarily by retail traders.

Record 72% Institutional OTC Share

According to the Wintermute report, the 72% figure represents the largest institutional share recorded across all tokens on its OTC desk. The firm's institutional client base includes hedge funds, digital asset treasuries, asset managers, and family offices. Wintermute trades more than $10 billion daily across more than 70 exchanges, meaning its client composition offers a meaningful window into how professional participants operate in the market.

The figure reflects transactions executed on Wintermute's platform specifically, not the broader global spot market. It does not imply that institutions are responsible for 72% of all Bitcoin trading. Prices continue to be discovered through a combination of exchanges, ETFs, the derivatives market, miners, and long-term holders. What the data does reveal is that large players are increasingly comfortable executing trades at private venues.

Why Large Players Prefer Private Desks

The primary advantage of OTC trading for large buyers and sellers is privacy. Rather than exposing an outsized transaction on a public order book — where it could move the market — investors can negotiate directly with a liquidity provider. This approach can reduce slippage, preserve the confidentiality of trading intentions, and offer flexible settlement terms. As more institutional capital flows through these private channels, a growing share of price formation occurs off public exchanges, a dynamic that can reduce visible order-book depth on retail-facing platforms even as overall market liquidity improves.

Market makers play a critical role in this ecosystem. Citadel Securities states that its responsibility is to provide two-sided quotes and earn the spread while supplying liquidity under all market conditions. Jane Street operates its crypto business through JCX, a trading platform launched in 2018 that supports continuous trading and daily settlements. These firms help build the infrastructure that enables institutional crypto activity, and their participation in the sector continues to grow.

Rising Demand Amid Thinner Trading Activity

A notable aspect of the current landscape is the divergence between institutional demand and overall trading activity.

In a market update published on May 11, Wintermute reported that Bitcoin had surpassed $80,000 for the first time since January, even as on-chain spot volumes sat at two-year lows. The firm observed that open interest surged by nearly $10 billion over a single month, though it characterized this as a short squeeze rather than evidence of large-scale on-chain buying.

Coinbase's July report described a similar environment, with altcoin open interest dominance hovering between 0.6 and 0.7 and the market remaining heavily concentrated in major assets. Research from Kaiko showed that the 10 largest altcoins accounted for 63% of altcoin volume in 2025, up from approximately 50% earlier in the year.

CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju went further in June, stating that Bitcoin-to-altcoin rotation had "basically disappeared."

What Institutions Trade — and What They Avoid

The concentration extends to the specific assets that institutional clients choose to trade. According to Wintermute, the number of unique tokens traded by institutional counterparties increased by just 24% from the first half of 2024 to the first half of 2026. Over the same period, retail traders expanded their token coverage by 76%. This indicates that large players remain focused on Bitcoin and Ether, while smaller traders continue to explore the market's long tail.

Institutions are also increasingly trading exposure to assets rather than purchasing tokens outright. Wintermute reported that altcoin options notional value rose approximately 3.4 times from the second half of 2025, with clients using options for both yield generation and directional exposure.

Spot ETFs reinforce this pattern. Wintermute recorded $623 million in ETF inflows in early May, including $194 million into Morgan Stanley's new Bitcoin fund during its first month of operation. A significant portion of that demand never appears on a public crypto exchange order book.

Outlook: Where Institutional Crypto Goes From Here

A central question is whether institutional participation will remain confined to the largest assets. If institutional investment grows in areas such as Solana, stablecoin infrastructure, and tokenized assets, liquidity could broaden across a wider range of instruments. Otherwise, institutional crypto activity may remain concentrated in high-end allocations while retail trading dominates the lower end of the market.

Wintermute is positioning itself for new demand sources regardless. On May 29, the firm entered prediction markets as a liquidity provider, with event-contract volume surpassing $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.