Traders and Over-the-Store (OTC) Desk WinterMute said the Crypto market has matured and diversified due to improved regulatory clarity and increased demand from traditional financial institutions.
In its 2025 OTC Market Report, the company detailed changes in the crypto trading market. The report highlighted an increasing number of differences between institutional investors and retailers based on data collected from OTC desks. This shows that institutions maintain a larger allocation to Ethereum and Bitcoin when compared to retail investors.
“Institutional and retail crypto strategies are moving in the opposite direction,” the company posted on X (formerly Twitter). “The agency maintained a 67% allocation to BTC and ETH, while retailers fell to 37% when they turned to Altcoins.”
According to a company that claims daily trading volumes on average over $15 billion, the amount of spots running through OTC desks has increased by more than 2.4 times the volume of centralized exchanges. Much of that growth comes from institutions and retail brokers as the volume of cryptocurrency has declined from Indigenous people.
Traditional finance has accelerated the adoption of crypto at an unprecedented level
Tradfi agencies are increasingly moving as tokenized platforms are ongoing, gaining traction and pilot equity offerings
→This marks the transition from indirect exposure to direct participation pic.twitter.com/dads9layhw
– WinterMute (@wintermute_t) July 15, 2025
“Counter parties continue to seek efficient ways to carry out larger transactions, and as institutional participation increases, they are increasingly preferring to trade without the need to hold assets on exchange platforms,” Wintermute said.
One particular trade type that has surged compared to the first half of 2024 was options trading, which jumped 412% in the first half of 2025 at WinterMute’s OTC desk. This trade flow was dominated by the Bitcoin and Ethereum trade, which made up 96% of all options trades.
The focus on Crypto’s two biggest assets is where institutional and retail buyers are beginning to diverge for the first time since the last bull market, according to the company.
“After spending much of 2024 on relative sync, it turned into smaller, beta tokens, and the focus of retail and institutional investments began to diverge at 1H25,” Wintermute wrote. “The institution has stopped spinning from majors, especially BTC and ETH. This has happened over the last two years, but retail continues to push deep into Altcoins.”
Additionally, the company showed that retail “quickly revolved into a new story like Starbull Coin,” and the agency preferred “infrastructure themes.”
These changes “reflect the shift in risk appetite and are early signs of a market maturity,” Wintermute said.
Since President Donald Trump was elected in November, signs of acceptance of the system and adoption of mainstream codes have become more apparent. The administration has become more friendly to crypto companies. SEC Ending Survey Litigation against many companies in the ecosystem.
moreover, Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF success and Growth trends in cryptocurrency vehicles We examined the interests of the world’s largest capital allocationrs and largest companies. This shows that many view digital assets as a legitimate investment vehicle.
