Wintermute: Institutions increase positions in BTC and ETH during the bull market of 2025, while retail investors turn to Meme coin

Odaily Planet Daily News: Wintermute has released a report stating that during the bull market in the first half of 2025, there will be significant differences in investment strategies between institutional investors and retail investors. Institutions double their bets on mainstream currencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), maintaining a 67% mainstream coin allocation through ETF inflows and derivative tools, while retail investors prefer higher risk memes and altcoins, with mainstream coin allocation dropping to 37%. Institutions extensively use derivatives for hedging and earnings management, resulting in a surge of 412% in over-the-counter options trading volume compared to the same period last year. Meme coins such as BONK, WIF, and POPCAT have become popular, but the proportion of veteran coins DOGE and SHIB has decreased. Wintermute pointed out that in the second half of the year, attention should be paid to the potential impact of the US Securities and Exchange Commission's approval of spot Dogecoin ETFs, and multiple institutions have submitted relevant applications. Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy stated that this divergence reflects the maturity and specialization of the cryptocurrency market, where institutions view cryptocurrency as a macro asset while retail investors chase innovation opportunities. （The Block）