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·2026-05-04·9 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. The strategy spec defined a hold timeout, but it was registered for firm trades only — 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.