The $2.5T cryptocurrency market is still dominated by retail investors, though institutional investment and crypto-only funds are catching up, Morgan Stanley analyst Sheena Shah writes in a note to clients. As more institutions purchase crypto, more bitcoin (BTC-USD) units are held by fewer participants, causing centralization. On the flip side, applications using other cryptos are moving to a decentralized finance ("DeFi") system with no intermediary or identity requirements; DeFi deposits of $235B surges 30,000% from early 2020, according to the note. In the meantime, Cowen's (NASDAQ:COWN) CEO Jeffrey Solomon seems to agree with Shah as "we've seen mostly retail involvement and a little institutional involvement, but we think we're in the very, very early stages of significant participation by institutions," he told Bloomberg in a Television interview. Shah notes that crypto markets will continue to remain volatile, cycling between bull and bear markets. Bitcoin (BTC-USD), which makes up 45% of