Hedge funds are shorting Ethereum on CME to engage in basis arbitrage

BlockBeats News, July 14th, according to data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), hedge funds on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), favored by institutional traders, have shorted $1.73 billion worth of Ethereum. CME data also shows that Ethereum's leverage net position is heavily tilted towards the short side.

It is reported that basis trading refers to shorting an asset on one platform while buying on another platform to maintain Delta-neutral price fluctuations. In this case, traders can achieve an annualized return of about 9.5% by shorting ETH on CME and buying spot ETF (currently managing assets of about $12 billion).

In addition, traders shorting ETH can earn an additional annualized return of about 3.5% by buying spot ETH and staking it. It is worth noting that buyers of spot ETFs cannot choose this method because Ethereum spot ETFs do not currently support staking services.