Crypto’s subsequent altcoin season could produce fewer winners as institutional buyers focus their exercise in a narrower group of digital belongings, in accordance with crypto market maker Wintermute.
In its over-the-counter (OTC) stream report for the primary half of 2026, Wintermute mentioned institutional counterparties generated 72% of spot stream throughout all tokens on its OTC desk, the very best share on file. That was up from 61% within the second half of 2025 and 59% within the first half of final 12 months.
With institutional exercise concentrated in fewer tokens and fading sooner after value surges, the findings recommend future altcoin rallies might grow to be narrower and extra selective. Wintermute mentioned liquidity was concentrating within the belongings establishments favored whereas exercise throughout the market’s “lengthy tail” weakened.
Between the primary half of 2024 and the primary half of 2026, the variety of distinctive tokens traded by Wintermute’s institutional counterparties grew by simply 24%, in contrast with 76% amongst retail purchasers. The agency additionally discovered that institutional exercise following a surge in a token’s value and quantity light after roughly someday. In distinction, retail exercise sometimes remained elevated for about three days.
Proportion of institutional spot OTC stream. Supply: Wintermute
Altcoin capital was already turning into extra concentrated
Wintermute’s findings add proprietary OTC knowledge to indicators that capital has been clustering round a smaller group of altcoins throughout the broader market.
On June 20, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Younger Ju mentioned the conventional rotation of Bitcoin income into smaller crypto belongings had “principally disappeared.” CryptoQuant knowledge confirmed buying and selling quantity in Bitcoin-denominated altcoin pairs close to its weakest stage since 2021.
In the meantime, the ten largest non-stablecoin altcoins accounted for about 80.5% of the non-Bitcoin, non-stablecoin market’s capitalization.
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Kaiko recognized the same focus in trade buying and selling. In July 2025, the info supplier mentioned that the ten largest altcoins accounted for 63% of altcoin buying and selling quantity, up from about 50% a number of months earlier, as exercise in smaller tokens weakened.
DWF Labs managing associate Andrei Grachev additionally argued that broad altcoin rallies had been giving option to selective sector strikes. On March 15, Grachev mentioned too many tokens had been competing for restricted capital, whereas institutional buyers remained centered on Bitcoin, Ether and tokenized real-world belongings.
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