Crypto market making is becoming more institutional even as overall trading activity has cooled. In a sector review, BigTime said trading volume has been falling since its September 2025 peak, while institutional trading has climbed to a record 72%, reshaping both the client base and revenue mix for market makers.
The report frames the industry around three lines of change: cyclical washout is increasing concentration, traditional financial institutions are taking stakes in crypto firms to acquire capability, and leading firms are expanding beyond pure market making into what BigTime calls "crypto capital markets platforms." GSR is presented as a key example, with its expansion accelerating after Standard Chartered's SC Ventures took a stake in the company.
Five data points outline the operating backdrop
BigTime said public information is enough to sketch the current business environment for market makers. Trading volume has continued to retreat from the high reached in September 2025. That contraction is one side of the picture. The other is structural change, with activity concentrating in derivatives and institutional flows.
According to the report, the derivatives-to-spot trading ratio has reached 9.6x. BigTime says that points to where trading is centered and where market makers now manage inventory and hedging most actively. At the same time, crypto ETF assets are nearing $100 billion, stablecoin supply has hit a record high, and institutional trading accounts for 72% of the market. Taken together, those figures suggest the market is no longer retail-led.
Against that backdrop, market makers are changing with the market. Their client mix, service model and revenue sources are shifting in step with institutional demand. BigTime sums it up this way: volume is shrinking, but the customer base is becoming more institutional.
The competitive field is being redrawn
In its comparison of major firms, BigTime cautions that disclosures are not standardized. Many valuation figures come from media reports on private fundraising rounds or from market chatter, so they are not directly comparable across firms.
Even so, the report says the direction of travel is visible. It cites a Decrypt report dated Oct. 17, 2025, saying the market sell-off in October 2025 led to roughly $19 billion in liquidations in a single day. It also references a media-circulated comment attributed to the Galaxy CEO in November 2025 that "30% of market makers" had exited. BigTime says the exact percentage may be debatable, but the broader trend is clear: in a period of weak volumes and compressed volatility, quoting obligations and inventory risk weigh more heavily on smaller participants, pushing concentration higher.
Banks are using equity stakes to buy crypto capability
BigTime describes this as one of the clearest industry themes of 2026. Standard Chartered's SC Ventures took a stake in GSR, becoming GSR's first external strategic shareholder. The same banking group also has ties with B2C2 and FalconX, according to the report. In Japan, SBI holds a stake in B2C2.
The report's reading is straightforward. Banks are not building crypto market-making operations themselves. Instead, they are buying stakes and forming partnerships to gain access to the capability.
The IPO window is open, but outcomes have split
BigTime says the listing window for market-making and brokerage firms has opened. FalconX filed for an IPO in May 2026, but the performance of listed peers has varied sharply.
- Circle rose 168% on its first trading day.
- Bullish rose 90% on its first trading day.
- Gemini was down about 89% from its first-day level by July 2026.
- CoinShares fell 21.7% on its listing debut in April 2026.
For that reason, BigTime says valuation ranges may be more meaningful than single-point estimates when assessing this group. A public listing, by itself, does not guarantee stable post-IPO performance.
Top firms are moving toward broader capital-markets platforms
BigTime says expansion paths are starting to converge. Wintermute has obtained a U.S. broker-dealer license. GSR has acquired a FINRA broker-dealer and launched an ETF. Several firms have also moved into tokenized assets.
The report lists several market-size references. Tokenized real-world assets, or RWA, stand at about $51 billion and are up 40% year over year under a Bernstein estimate cited by The Block on June 22, 2026. A separate estimate cited by Forbes on July 2, 2026 put the figure at about $60 billion, with roughly half showing little substantive on-chain activity. Yellow said on Sept. 13, 2026 that tokenized U.S. Treasuries had exceeded $10 billion.
Market makers are already participating in that segment. The Block reported on Feb. 16, 2026 that Wintermute launched tokenized gold OTC trading and estimated that market at $15 billion in 2026. GSR head of markets Spencer Hallarn said on The Desk podcast in September 2026 that RWA perpetuals already accounted for 63% of Hyperliquid trading volume.
BigTime's conclusion is that leading firms are no longer stopping at market making. They are building broader crypto capital-markets businesses. The report adds one caveat: the quality of that expansion should be judged by customer adoption and operating results, not by the number of announcements.
Four things to check when studying a market maker
BigTime says there are four recurring points worth checking when evaluating a firm in this sector.
- Quoting and risk management: whether the firm can maintain quotes during periods of higher volatility, and how it manages inventory and hedging costs.
- Licenses, legal entities and business scope: a license belongs to a specific legal entity and covers a defined business line, so it should not be assumed to apply across an entire group.
- Capital relationships: who owns the company and who has taken a stake can shape both resources and incentives.
- Client mix and service depth: whether the firm serves one-off trading needs or ongoing demand across issuance, trading and treasury functions.
Within that framework, BigTime places GSR as an established market maker that has added cross-jurisdiction licensing, brought in a bank-affiliated shareholder, and pushed into ETFs and advisory services. The report says that makes GSR one example of how the industry is shifting from pure market making toward institutional capital-markets services.
Risk notes and sourcing
The report says industry data comes from third-party statistics and media coverage, and that methodologies and observation dates differ across sources. Metrics such as trading volume and institutional share can change quickly with market conditions. Some event details may also be revised later. Company-specific developments cited in the piece are based on media reports and are not audit-verified.
Its source list includes CoinDesk Data, CCData Exchange Reviews, CryptoRank, Crypto Briefing, Mediaite, CoinDesk, CryptoSlate, The Block, CoinMarketCap, Forbes, Yellow and The Desk podcast, with research cut off as of Sept. 13, 2026. For Standard Chartered's SC Ventures investment in GSR, the report cites CoinDesk and Ledger Insights, both dated May 5, 2026.
BigTime also notes that some references are only at the headline level and that original links for those items are still to be added. Figures marked as media-circulated should be checked against the original reports and are not audit-confirmed. The industry conclusions in the piece are presented as BigTime research analysis and not as investment advice.