Name: How To Trade Using Open Interest & Funding Rates
Uploaded: 2025-06-03T16:00:03+00:00
Duration: 714 s

Speakers

Jonah Van Bourg — Head of Trading, Cumberland / ex-Vitol

Avi Felman — Principal, GoldenTree Asset Management

Summary

Avi Felman and Jonah Van Bourg discuss how to trade crypto using open interest and funding rates. Jonah explains that open interest expansion relative to price move signals when leverage is excessive, while funding spikes confirm that OI is driven by aggressive longs. In the current BTC setup, he avoids new longs and sees tactical shorts until OI resets, then plans to buy altcoins. He also explains why crypto basis arbitrage stays anchored to Tradfi cost of capital.

Jonah walks through a VEL BTC chart using open interest and aggregate funding.
He compares OI added versus price move to identify over-leveraged rallies.
A May BTC move from $102k to $111k added about 40k BTC of OI, far more than a prior 40% move.
Flat OI after momentum fades suggests no new buyers and late longs vulnerable to unwind.
Jonah says he would not buy BTC until OI resets, then plans to buy altcoins around a potential $97k flush.
Funding spikes are used mainly to confirm rising OI is long-driven; funding arb compresses spikes quickly.
Crypto basis arbitrage is framed as dependent on Tradfi cost of capital and funding exceeding institutional hurdles.

Ideas

Jonah Van Bourg Head of Trading, Cumberland / ex-Vitol 3:57

Avoid BTC until leveraged open interest flushes

When Bitcoin rallies, compare the BTC-denominated open interest added to the price move. In May, a 9% move from $102k to $111k added about 40k BTC of OI, far more than the 15k added during a prior 40% move, putting the market in a danger zone. After price went sideways and OI stayed flat, no new buyers were willing to add, leaving late leveraged longs paying funding and likely to unwind. He therefore would not buy BTC here, would lighten up, and says tactical shorts are possible until OI resets; he waits for another roughly 10k-13k BTC of OI to come off, potentially toward $97k.

Jonah Van Bourg Head of Trading, Cumberland / ex-Vitol 4:49

Buy altcoins after BTC leverage flush

Once BTC's leveraged open interest has reset, ideally with another roughly 10k-13k BTC coming off and price reaching around $97k, he plans to buy aggressively into altcoins. He views the post-flush environment as the point when alt exposure becomes attractive.

Jonah Van Bourg Head of Trading, Cumberland / ex-Vitol 9:06

Crypto basis arb above cost of capital

Crypto basis arbitrage is tied to Tradfi cost of capital: deep-pocketed institutions borrow or allocate capital against an internal hurdle set by risk-free yields and opportunity cost. At about 3.5% Binance BTC funding, the basis trade is unattractive versus roughly 4% T-bills, but at about 20% funding after the election it becomes attractive. This institutional arbing keeps funding spikes short-lived, making the basis trade a watchable setup when funding spikes above cost of capital.

This 1000x Podcast video, published June 03, 2025, features Jonah Van Bourg discussing BTC, ALTCOINS, Bitcoin basis trade. 3 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.

Speakers: Jonah Van Bourg · Tickers: BTC, ALTCOINS, Bitcoin basis trade

How To Trade Using Open Interest & Funding Rates

Summary

Ideas

Up Next