Opinion: The claim of “the largest ETH short position in history” is greatly exaggerated

PANews reported on July 5 that David Duong, head of research at Coinbase Institutional, published an analysis on the X platform, saying that the so-called "largest ETH short position in history" is actually seriously exaggerated. The ETH spot ETF ushered in strong growth in June, with net inflows reaching US$1.16 billion, which is an unprecedented surge in the history of such products, mainly due to more and more institutions participating in CME arbitrage transactions (basis trade).

In CME's ETH futures, leveraged funds' short positions increased from $466 million at the beginning of May to $1.6 billion on June 24, an increase of $1.14 billion - coincidentally, this is very close to the net inflow of spot ETFs. This is because the annualized basis yield of ETH futures relative to spot has increased from an average of 6% in February this year to 8%-9% in May and June, attracting more institutional investors to participate in arbitrage transactions of buying spot and selling futures.