Crypto OTC Trading Report 2026

Would Anyone Miss Banking Rails? That’s the question we asked ourselves when preparing this annual report. As stablecoins settle trillions in annual value, OTC growth dynamics outpace centralized exchanges, and capital increasingly moves outside traditional correspondent networks, the role of legacy banking infrastructure is no longer a given.

In this 2026 institutional outlook, Finery Markets and Stablecoin Insider examine whether crypto market structure is simply evolving — or fundamentally replacing parts of the financial plumbing that institutions have relied on for decades. 

Drawing on proprietary execution data from Finery Markets’ network of 150+ institutional participants across 40 countries, alongside an anonymous survey of liquidity providers, prime brokers, and market makers, the report captures a shift from speculative momentum to infrastructure-led adoption, a transition that may define the road to 2030.

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Key data

• Spot OTC is accelerating: institutional spot OTC volumes expanded +109% YoY, while top-20 CEXs grew just +9% YoY by year-end 2025, reinforcing OTC’s role as the institutional liquidity engine.

• OTC is now a default workflow: 40% of surveyed institutions name OTC as their first-choice execution venue, routing over half of trades off-screen.  

• Stablecoins dominate settlement: their share of institutional OTC transaction volume rose from 23% (2023) to 78% (2025). Stablecoin market cap reached ~$310B (Jan 2026) with $57T+ annual transaction volume, positioning them as the de facto settlement layer.  

• The “fragmentation tax” is real: legacy pre-funding models trap capital across venues. Institutions are migrating toward credit-first execution models and T+0 atomic settlement to restore capital efficiency.  

• Margins are tightening: 75% of liquidity providers report declining spread capture in 2025 versus 2024 — shifting competition from pricing to infrastructure efficiency.  

• Regional demand shifts: 2026 growth expectations skew toward North America (34%) and Asia (20%), with Europe at 7% despite regulatory formalization under MiCA.  

What the report covers

• Utility leads price — and 2030 is the real horizon

This cycle is characterized by a widening gap between infrastructure build-out and token price appreciation. Institutional adoption is being engineered through compliance automation, modular architecture, and settlement design, not driven by retail-led speculation.  

• The unbundling of the institutional stack

Vertically integrated exchange “walled gardens” are giving way to independent layers: execution, custody, and settlement. Non-custodial ECNs and off-exchange settlement networks are removing pre-funding requirements and redefining counterparty risk management.  

• OTC as the structural liquidity engine

As centralized exchange growth stabilizes, institutional OTC markets are emerging as the steadier backbone of crypto liquidity, echoing mature OTC structures in traditional finance. Prime brokerage, ECN connectivity, and credit intermediation are converging into networked liquidity ecosystems.  

• Stablecoins as programmable settlement rails

Stablecoins are no longer an auxiliary bridge, they are becoming the settlement infrastructure itself. Always-on transferability, atomic swaps, and programmable treasury workflows are reshaping capital velocity and cross-border financial operations.  

• RWAs and the missing secondary market layer

Tokenized issuance is accelerating, but secondary liquidity remains constrained. The report examines why compliant trading venues lag issuance growth and how stablecoin-native settlement could complete the tokenization circuit.

This report is designed for institutional liquidity providers, OTC desks, exchanges, prime brokers, asset managers, and infrastructure teams seeking clarity on where structural alpha is emerging. The next competitive edge in institutional crypto will not be leverage or latency, it will be capital efficiency, settlement architecture, and networked liquidity design.