Wintermute's OTC volume saw 72% from institutions in H1 2026, up from 59% a year earlier. The data shows a shift toward private venues and a narrowing focus on top assets like Bitcoin and Ether.
Institutional clients accounted for 72% of Wintermute's spot over-the-counter trading volume in the first half of 2026, the highest share the firm has recorded. Wintermute disclosed the figure on July 30, an increase from 59% in the first half of 2025 and 61% in the second half of last year.
Large investors have shifted to private desks to avoid moving prices on public order books. Hedge funds and asset managers now execute sizeable crypto trades through OTC venues, where they negotiate directly with a liquidity provider. The benefit: lower slippage and confidentiality of trading intent, according to a person familiar with the firm's operations.
Wintermute trades more than $10 billion daily across more than 70 exchanges. Its client base includes hedge funds, digital asset treasuries, asset managers and family offices. The 72% covers Wintermute's platform, not the global spot market. Prices are still set across exchange order books, ETFs, derivatives and miners.
The data shows professional investors growing comfortable with private venues. The institutional footprint, though, remains narrow. Wintermute found that the number of unique tokens traded by its institutional counterparty rose only 24% from the first half of 2024 to the first half of 2026. Retail traders, by contrast, expanded their token universe by 76%. Large clients still focus on Bitcoin and Ether. Retail chases the market's long tail.
Institutions are also using options to gain exposure. Wintermute reported that altcoin options notional rose about 3.4 times from the second half of 2025. Clients use options for yield and directional bets. Spot ETFs reinforce the shift. 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 touches a public crypto exchange book.
The concentration story is visible elsewhere. Coinbase's July report showed altcoin open interest dominance stuck around 0.6–0.7, with the market staying concentrated in major assets. Kaiko found 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 said in June that Bitcoin-to-altcoin rotation had "basically disappeared."
Wintermute is betting OTC demand will broaden. On May 29, it entered prediction markets as a liquidity provider, with event-contract volume topping $60 billion for the year. "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.
Drafted by a large language model from the source reporting linked above, then screened by automated publishing checks. It is not read by a journalist before publication. Some articles cite our Alpha Score. Verify prices and figures against the original source. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.