Altcoin Season May Favor Select Few Amid Increasing Institutional Dominance

The next altcoin season may look very different from previous market cycles, according to crypto market maker Wintermute. Instead of capital spreading across hundreds of cryptocurrencies, the firm expects institutional investors to concentrate their money in a much smaller group of established projects.

Data from Wintermute, CryptoQuant, and Kaiko points to the same trend, showing that liquidity is flowing into only a handful of large, liquid assets instead of the broader altcoin market. Institutional investors accounted for 72% of spot OTC trading volume in H1 2026, the highest level on record.

The report found that between H1 2024 and H1 2026, institutional investors increased the number of unique tokens traded by only 24%, while retail traders expanded their token exposure by 76%. This indicates that institutions are dominating crypto flows and tend to reduce trading activity one day after a sharp price rally.