72% of Crypto Market Now Controlled by Institutional Investors
The OTC crypto market has shifted towards large players, with institutional investors accounting for a record 72% of turnover on Wintermute's spot platform in the first half of 2026. This marks a significant increase from 59% a year earlier and 61% in the second half of 2025.
The growth in institutional share can be attributed to a prolonged bear cycle, with retail traders partly moving to the securities market. The space left behind was filled by large players such as hedge funds, investment funds, asset managers, family offices, and digital asset treasuries.
This shift has resulted in a decline in bitcoin's realized volatility, falling by almost half from 70% to 45%. The volume of altcoin options on Wintermute's platform grew by approximately 3.4 times compared to the second half of 2025.
The use of derivatives and tokenization is becoming more important than spot trading, with large players increasingly using option, futures, and other derivative financial instruments for risk management and hedging.