When bitcoin rocketed from around $62,000 to above $77,000 in a matter of days last week, the move wiped out $3 billion from leveraged short sellers who had built up bearish bets during the prior drawdown. But for trading firms, the price hike presented an opportunity – one that had nothing to do with predicting where prices would go next.
Major crypto trading firms, including Abraxas Capital, Fasanara Capital, and Wintermute, have quietly built what onchain data shows are hundreds of millions of dollars in short perpetual futures positions on Hyperliquid, the onchain derivatives exchange. Collectively, the three firms hold short positions of 138,569 $ETH (roughly $338 million) and 3,425 $BTC (around $265 million), according to onchain data tracked by Lookonchain.
At the same time, Abraxas Capital has been pulling large amounts of spot crypto off centralized exchanges. On-chain data from Arkham Intelligence shows the firm withdrew 73,872 $ETH — worth approximately $173 million — from Binance over the past four days alone.
Collecting yield, not making bets
The strategy is known as a cash-and-carry, or basis trade, and it has become one of the most common yield-generating plays in crypto markets during bull phases. The mechanics are straightforward: traders hold a spot crypto position while simultaneously shorting an equivalent amount via perpetual futures. Because the two positions offset each other, the trader has minimal exposure to price movements. What they capture instead is the funding rate — a periodic payment that longs must pay to shorts when the market is bullish.
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