Hedge fund giant Millennium previously disclosed that it holds $2 billion worth of Bitcoin spot ETFs, including $844 million BlackRock IBIT and $806 million Fidelity FBTC shares.
Two institutional traders said that Millennium may deploy a trading strategy of "basis trading". Millennium is not betting that the price of Bitcoin will rise further, but may arbitrage the spot price and futures price of Bitcoin on CME.
In other words, Millennium does not necessarily invest in ETFs because it likes Bitcoin, but only takes advantage of market inefficiencies to make profits. The above traders do not work at Millennium, but have relevant experience in Wall Street trading companies.
It is reported that basis trading is a financial term used to describe the difference between the spot price and the futures price of a particular commodity.
Assuming that the trading price of Bitcoin is $70,000, but the price of the corresponding futures contract on CME is $77,000, then the price difference between the two is 10%. If institutional traders believe that the price of Bitcoin will catch up to the price of the futures contract, they will buy Bitcoin spot ETF shares and sell Bitcoin futures contracts on CME; if they think that the price of the futures contract will fall until it reaches the spot price, they will sell Bitcoin in the spot market and buy Bitcoin futures contracts on CME. In this way, they can take advantage of the 10% price difference between spot and futures prices. However, if they bet on the first scenario and the second scenario happens, or vice versa, they may still lose money. (DL News)