Research notes · Quantitative crypto

Edge research, written by the people who build it.

No clickbait, no AI-generated filler. Each article is a working note from our quant desk — what worked, what didn't, and the data behind both. We publish for traders who care about how strategies actually behave.

Insider series · How we built it
Insider·2026-05-04·11 min read

Building NEVA — a multi-factor compression detector

The honest history of NEVA. Six failed versions before the current build, why each failed, and the empirical reasoning behind every surviving factor (compression, funding skew, OI growth, top-trader LSR inverted, BTC regime).

Insider·2026-05-04·9 min read

Killing BURST — when 7 production triggers told us no

The autopsy of BURST. Sound theory, 7 live triggers, then a 90-day synthetic backtest with 256 trades that confirmed PF 0.72. We killed it. Honest post-mortem on why.

Insider·2026-05-04·7 min read

The 8-hour timeout bug — why three user positions hung 33 hours

A subscriber asked why their positions were still open after two days. NEVA spec said 8h hold. The timeout was registered for firm trades but not user trades. Honest post-mortem.

Insider·2026-04-27·9 min read

Why we killed ORACLE — the autopsy of whale-mirror trading

ORACLE was our Hyperliquid CONFLUENCE detector. Live: -8.94% in 7 days. Why mirror-trading whales is conceptually broken regardless of the wallet selection.

Insider·2026-05-04·10 min read

The path-dependent backtest — what most crypto track records hide

Most "verified" crypto backtests use vectorized simulation that mathematically can't lose. Path-dependent is the right answer. Lower numbers, harder to fake, almost nobody publishes them. How we run ours.

Strategy & education
2026-05-04·Funding rates·9 min read

Funding-rate arbitrage explained — how delta-neutral yield actually works

A working primer on funding-rate arbitrage on USDT-margined perpetual futures. Why funding rates exist, how to capture them with a delta-neutral position, what the realistic APY looks like in 2026, and where retail gets it wrong.

2026-05-04·Basis trades·7 min read

Cash-and-carry in crypto — the basis trade for the perpetual era

Classic basis arbitrage adapted for crypto. Why dated-futures basis is dead post-CME-launch, how perpetual funding has effectively replaced it, and the structural reason this trade still pays in 2026.

2026-05-04·Comparison·8 min read

Best funding rate exchanges in 2026 — Binance, Bybit, Hyperliquid, OKX, Bitget

Side-by-side comparison of the five major venues for funding-rate trading. Funding intervals, fee structures, OI quality, withdrawal speed, and which venue currently pays the highest sustainable APY for delta-neutral capital.

2026-05-04·Hyperliquid·10 min read

Hyperliquid funding rates — the 1-hour interval that changes the game

Hyperliquid funds hourly, not every 8 hours. That single design choice turns it into the highest-yielding venue for funding harvesting — and the most punishing if you don't watch the rate decay. A practical playbook.

2026-05-04·Event-driven·8 min read

Trading the Binance monitoring tag — why retail loses this asymmetric short

When Binance flags a coin for monitoring, the path is statistically one direction. The trade is not finding the edge — it is arriving at it before the human reacts. Why the move is half-done by the time it hits Telegram, and how we shave the latency to under 3 seconds.