Abraxas Capital’s whale arbitrage strategy achieved an annualized return on gold of 25.9%, with a 10.2% return already recorded from funding rates.

TechFlow news: On June 26, according to Hyperinsight monitoring data, Abraxas Capital—a large whale that has long engaged in funding-rate arbitrage by holding hedged short positions on gold-related assets—currently holds a 5x-leveraged short position with an initial margin of approximately $3.51 million. This position has been open for 144 days and has been consistently maintained at this scale. Cumulative funding-rate settlements during this period amount to $359,000—roughly 10.2% of the initial margin. Excluding minor position adjustments, its annualized return stands at approximately 25.9%.

Overall, large on-chain whales exhibit a net bearish bias (likely due to arbitrage or hedging positions): total nominal short exposure across the market is approximately $39.3 million—1.56 times the total long exposure ($25.2 million). In contrast, when excluding large positions, funding rates have remained positive for most of the time (indicating sustained net bullish sentiment in the broader market), thereby providing a stable source of funding-rate income for hedged short positions.