Crypto’s Next Altseason May Have Fewer Winners: Wintermute

Institutional traders accounted for 72% of Wintermute’s spot OTC flow in 1H 2026 as capital concentrated in fewer tokens and altcoin rallies narrowed.

Crypto’s Next Altseason May Have Fewer Winners: Wintermute

DOGE

$0.07014

0.06%

TRX

$0.3288

0.80%

LINK

$8.36

1.00%

ZEC

$462.61

3.08%

ADA

$0.1685

3.71%

XRP

$1.08

0.45%

ETH

$1,904.47

0.04%

BTC

$64,314.96

0.47%

XMR

$354.83

0.54%

BNB

$590.07

2.97%

XLM

$0.1709

0.35%

SOL

$74.18

0.71%

HYPE

$55.23

2.87%

Written by

Ezra Reguerra

staff writer

Reviewed by

Yohan Yun

staff editor

Written by

Ezra Reguerra

staff writer

Reviewed by

Yohan Yun

staff editor

Crypto’s next altseason may have fewer winners: Wintermute

Latest News

Published

Jul 31, 2026

Institutional investors accounted for 72% of Wintermute’s spot OTC flow in the first half of 2026 as capital clustered in fewer tokens and altcoin rallies became more selective.

Crypto’s next altcoin season may produce fewer winners as institutional investors concentrate their activity in a narrower group of digital assets, according to crypto market maker Wintermute.

In its over-the-counter (OTC) flow report for the first half of 2026, Wintermute

said

institutional counterparties generated 72% of spot flow across all tokens on its OTC desk, the highest share on record. That was up from 61% in the second half of 2025 and 59% in the first half of last year.

With institutional activity concentrated in fewer tokens and fading faster after price surges, the findings suggest future altcoin rallies could become narrower and more selective. Wintermute said liquidity was concentrating in the assets institutions favored while activity across the market’s “long tail” weakened.

Between the first half of 2024 and the first half of 2026, the number of unique tokens traded by Wintermute’s institutional counterparties grew by just 24%, compared with 76% among retail clients. The firm also found that institutional activity following a surge in a token’s price and volume faded after roughly one day. In contrast, retail activity typically remained elevated for about three days.

Percentage of institutional spot OTC flow. Source: Wintermute

Altcoin capital was already becoming more concentrated

Wintermute’s findings add proprietary OTC data to signs that capital has been clustering around a smaller group of altcoins across the wider market.

On June 20, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju said the

traditional rotation of Bitcoin profits

into smaller crypto assets had “basically disappeared.” CryptoQuant data showed trading volume in Bitcoin-denominated altcoin pairs near its weakest level since 2021.

Meanwhile, the 10 largest non-stablecoin altcoins accounted for about 80.5% of the non-Bitcoin, non-stablecoin market’s capitalization.

Related:

Crypto altseason unlikely in 2026 as ‘blue-chip survivors’ to win out: Analyst

Kaiko identified a similar concentration in exchange trading. In July 2025, the data provider

said

that the ten largest altcoins accounted for 63% of altcoin trading volume, up from about 50% several months earlier, as activity in smaller tokens weakened.

DWF Labs managing partner Andrei Grachev also argued that broad altcoin rallies were giving way to selective sector moves. On March 15, Grachev said too many tokens were

competing for limited capital

, while institutional investors remained focused on Bitcoin, Ether and tokenized real-world assets.

Magazine:

The 100x obsession: Fundamentals grow in importance as crypto matures

Subscribe to daily byte-sized crypto news from Cointelegraph

Subscribe

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s

Editorial Policy

and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Trading

Data

OTC

Altcoins

More on the subject

HYPE falls as crypto funds queue nearly $150M in locked tokens for withdrawal

Jul 23, 2026

Charles Bennett

Balance Coin crashes 99% after reported $915K exploit

Jul 22, 2026

Felix Ng

Grayscale files S-1 for first US Worldcoin ETF

Jul 21, 2026

Felix Ng

News Brief

HYPE falls as crypto funds queue nearly $150M in locked tokens for withdrawal

Jul 23, 2026

Charles Bennett

Balance Coin crashes 99% after reported $915K exploit

Jul 22, 2026

Felix Ng

Grayscale files S-1 for first US Worldcoin ETF

Jul 21, 2026

Felix Ng

News Brief