🤑 Crypto’s Great Divide: A Tale of Two Investors 🤑

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As we meander through the labyrinthine corridors of the crypto market, a most fascinating spectacle unfolds before our very eyes. The first half of 2025 has borne witness to a divergence of investor focus, a veritable chasm between the institutional behemoths and the retail novices. The former, it seems, have developed an unyielding affinity for the majors – Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) – while the latter have taken a shine to the altcoins, those tantalizing, yet treacherous, sirens of the crypto world.

Wintermute’s 1H 2025 OTC Market Report, a tome of revelatory insights, reveals that institutions have doubled down on their BTC and ETH holdings, allocating a substantial 67% of their portfolios to these two assets. Retail investors, on the other hand, have retreated from these stalwarts, their combined BTC and ETH holdings dwindling to a mere 37%. The trend, Wintermute notes with a hint of drama, is “the widest divergence since 2023 and a clear break from earlier parallel moves.” 📉

But alas, dear reader, this divergence is not merely a matter of portfolio allocations. Oh no, the very fabric of crypto trading dynamics is being reshaped by the institutional behemoths. OTC trading volumes, driven by these giants, have surged to grow 2.4 times faster than CEX volumes in the first half of this year. The reason, Wintermute coyly suggests, is that institutional players seek to execute large, discreet trades without exposing their assets on exchanges. 🔍

“Counterparties continue to seek efficient ways to execute larger trades, and as institutional participation grows, there’s a rising preference to trade without the need to hold assets on exchange platforms,” Wintermute writes with a flourish. 💸

And if that were not enough, the report also notes a 412% jump in options trading centered on BTC and ETH, compared to the first half of 2024. But wait, there’s more! A twofold increase in traded CFD underlyings, including newly launched index products, has also been observed. 📈

But what of the memecoins, those lovable, laughable relics of a bygone era? Alas, dear reader, it seems that legacy memecoins like Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), and Pepe Coin (PEPE) have lost ground to newer entrants like Bonk (BONK), Dogwifhat (WIF), and Popcat (POPCAT). The share of long-tail memecoins, Wintermute reports, has surged dramatically, rising from 0.7% to 16.1% of total trading flow. 🐕

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2025-07-16 15:29