Ethena: The arbitrage space for gold futures and spot is larger than for BTC and ETH

Odaily Odaily reported that Ethena officially released an arbitrage analysis on the perpetual contract market for gold tokens (PAXG, XAUT) on X. Data shows that over the past twelve months, the annualized funding rate for PAXG was 5.8%, and for XAUT it was 12.4%, both significantly higher than the average levels for BTC and ETH over the same period (5.2% and 4.1%, respectively). The daily volatility of gold funding rates is higher than that of cryptocurrencies, due to the smaller trading volume in the gold market. However, gold funding rates are positive 82% to 89% of the time, which is generally consistent with BTC (88%) and ETH (85%).

Furthermore, Ethena stated that the funding rates for gold and cryptocurrencies are almost uncorrelated; when cryptocurrency funding rates are compressed, gold funding rates tend to remain stable or rise. Therefore, incorporating gold perpetual contracts into a spot-futures arbitrage portfolio (holding both spot positions and equivalent short positions) will improve yield levels and reduce yield volatility.