hedge

As of the week ending October 20, leveraged funds increased their net short positions in euros by 1,305 contracts, reaching 94,100, the highest level since March 2020, corresponding to short bets of approximately 11.8 billion euros.The turmoil in French politics, debt pressures, and escalating protests have heightened market concerns, dragging down the euro's performance. The euro fell 0.4% against the US dollar this week.

According to Bloomberg, the prediction market platform Kalshi plans to launch exchange-traded futures contracts tracking the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) and core CPI in December. They are promoting related products to major banks and hedge funds and have hired former Barclays trader Michael Ashton, known as "Mr. Inflation," to design the contracts and expand institutional clients.If launched, this would become a unique futures product directly tracking the CPI, helping institutional investors hedge against inflation and the risks of changes in Federal Reserve interest rates, and allowing Kalshi to further enter the traditional derivatives market dominated by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). Kalshi has confirmed that it is developing CPI futures but has not disclosed specific launch details.

Goldman Sachs Group data shows that, affected by the stock market sell-off, global hedge funds have experienced the broadest decline since the COVID-19 pandemic. All three major stock strategies fell more than 1% on the same day.As of Thursday's close, global fundamental long-short strategy funds fell by 1.4%, while funds focused on telecommunications, media, and technology sectors averaged a decline of 2.7%. Global systematic long-short strategy funds fell by 1.3%, and multi-strategy platforms fell by 1.9%.

According to PR Newswire, the blockchain asset management firm CMCC Global announced the tokenization of its Crest Fund (Crest) and Liberty Bitcoin Accumulation Fund (LBAF), calling them the first tokenized master fund products issued under El Salvador's digital asset legal framework.The two funds will be issued using Tether's Hadron tokenization platform and will raise funds from qualified investors through the regulated Bitfinex Securities platform, with the subscription period ending on October 30, 2026. Both funds are multi-manager quantitative hedge funds that invest in market-neutral strategies in the digital asset market, including funding rates, cross-exchange and volatility arbitrage, market making, and DeFi strategies. Among them, Crest is denominated in USD, targeting returns above U.S. Treasury yields; LBAF is denominated in Bitcoin, targeting a net annualized return of 8% to 12%.BTCS S.A., a digital asset treasury company listed in Poland and Frankfurt, has agreed to act as a cornerstone investor and plans to allocate a three-digit number of Bitcoins to LBAF, with the specific amount not yet disclosed. The token issuance price is set at $10 per CREST and 0.0001 BTC per LBAF, with a minimum subscription of one token; eligible holders can also trade on the secondary market through Bitfinex Securities around the clock.

According to Bloomberg, Augnition Global Investors, a technology hedge fund founded by Jeff Wang, the former head of global equities at Sequoia Capital, announced that it has completed fundraising of over $1 billion.According to disclosed regulatory documents, the fund started with at least $570 million in capital, of which about 45% is internal capital.

Goldman Sachs stated that the speed at which hedge funds are selling off technology stocks is the fastest in ten years.

User KawzInvests posted about the hedge fund VARA AI Fund. The user stated that this fund had 9 employees at the end of June, approximately 16 months after its launch, managing about 26.4 billion dollars, and mentioned that rumors were circulating in the market that the fund had already faced a liquidation.KawzInvests also listed the results of the fund's 13F filing as of March 31, calculated at the day's prices, stating that the relevant positions covered 60 securities, totaling about 13.1 billion dollars. Among the larger positions were NBIS approximately 1.28 billion dollars, BE approximately 1.27 billion dollars, LITE approximately 1.03 billion dollars, CRWV approximately 889 million dollars, STX approximately 728 million dollars, VRT approximately 720 million dollars, WDC approximately 624 million dollars, CLS approximately 537 million dollars, COHR approximately 492 million dollars, FIX approximately 426 million dollars.

According to Lookonchain monitoring, the cryptocurrency asset management firm Abraxas Capital has realized profits exceeding 331 million dollars from two hedge accounts on the decentralized derivatives trading platform Hyperliquid.Currently, the aforementioned accounts hold a total of over 1.45 billion dollars in short hedge positions.

Dework founder Lonis Hamaili announced on X the launch of the AI hedge fund Cambrian, with seed funding of approximately 70 million USD. The fund's supporters include the Japanese listed company Metaplanet and Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn.Lonis Hamaili also stated: General artificial intelligence is on the way, and the current trading multiples of hundreds of AI supply chain oligarchs are only 1 to 5 times revenue and 5 to 15 times profit. He believes that the shorter AI development timeline may weaken the moat in the software field, but key bottlenecks in physical processes still exist.

Catherine Chen, the head of VIP and institutional business at Binance, stated in an interview with The Block during Token2049 that traditional hedge funds, which previously took a wait-and-see approach, are now showing a stronger interest due to the emergence of arbitrage opportunities related to traditional financial instruments such as cash stocks and perpetual contracts on crypto platforms.She pointed out that the improvement in market depth, combined with 24/7 trading and weekend price discovery mechanisms, makes these opportunities more realistic. She also mentioned that when the same tools are offered on second- and third-tier platforms or in DeFi venues, liquidity often falls short of hedge funds' needs. However, she emphasized that this process is still in its early stages and does not expect a surge in capital inflows overnight, with the next 12 to 18 months being worth close attention.Similar changes are happening on the other side of the market. Chen indicated that their crypto-native clients are incorporating more tools linked to traditional financial products to build hybrid investment portfolios. The data she cited showed that the scale of Binance's cash stock assets has increased from about $800 million to $900 million to $1.4 billion, while the trading volume of traditional financial perpetual contracts has risen from about $20 billion to $30 billion per month when launched at the beginning of this year to about $400 billion every 30 days. She believes that tokenization and cross-asset trading are still in their early stages, and regulatory clarity will determine the ultimate integration of traditional and crypto trading more than the product offerings of a single platform.

The media and conference organization NEXTPredict announced that it has executed the first trade in the flight cancellation market through Kalshi to hedge investments for its October summit, locking in $3 million in guarantees. The company paid a premium of $12,000, and if the cancellation rate of flights arriving at New York's Kennedy International Airport on October 21 exceeds 50%, the contract will automatically pay out, covering the summit costs, as October 21 is the main travel day for attendees. Susquehanna acted as the market maker for this transaction.Kalshi launched the flight cancellation market after self-certifying the contract with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on July 14, allowing participants to trade on whether the cancellation volume at specific airports exceeds preset thresholds. This market does not target individual flights and has clear anti-manipulation clauses. NEXTPredict is a media and event platform focused on the global prediction market industry, launched by the NEXT.io team. Its flagship event, the "Global Prediction Market Summit," will be held from October 22 to 23, 2026, at Convene Hudson Yards in New York, bringing together founders, executives, investors, and policymakers.NEXTPredict and Kalshi position this trade as institutional hedging, similar to how airlines hedge against fuel costs or farmers hedge against crop yields, rather than betting on the fate of the summit.

According to Hupzy, the current net exposure of hedge funds to the "Magnificent 7" in the U.S. stock market has risen to 22%, a record high, surpassing the peak of 21% on June 2024, and increasing by 7 percentage points since July of this year. In comparison, at the bottom of the bear market in 2022, this indicator was only 8%.The record-long positions reflect strong confidence from institutions in technology stocks, but it also means that trading may be overly crowded and does not necessarily indicate that the market will continue to rise. If the relevant investment logic changes, large-scale liquidations could trigger a sharp reversal and directly impact the perpetual contract market for the S&P 500 index; a decline in risk appetite may also further pressure Bitcoin.Additionally, the net exposure of hedge funds in the semiconductor sector is currently at 12%, slightly below the peak of 14% in June 2024, but significantly up from 2% at the beginning of 2025. Over the past three months, the increase in hedge fund exposure to the Magnificent 7 has been the largest since 2023.

According to The Block, Ripple announced a deepening of its cooperation with the global hedge fund Brevan Howard, which will adopt the multi-asset prime brokerage, clearing, and financing services provided by Ripple Prime, further expanding the use of Ripple's institutional-grade financial infrastructure and digital asset products.Brevan Howard currently manages approximately $35 billion in assets, and its Group Chief Operating Officer Alan McGroarty stated that as digital assets increasingly integrate with traditional financial markets, the demand for digital asset infrastructure from institutions continues to grow. Ripple's platform is expected to enhance the operational efficiency and capital utilization of investment teams.This cooperation is built on the existing investment relationship between the two parties. Brevan Howard had previously invested in Ripple and participated in its strategic financing round last year, which amounted to $500 million. Ripple Prime is the institutional-grade prime brokerage platform launched by Ripple after acquiring Hidden Road for $1.25 billion in 2025.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) pointed out in the "Global Financial Stability Report" that attention should be paid to the risks that hedge funds pose to macro-financial stability. The rapid growth of global hedge fund assets may amplify price misalignments and liquidity strains, leading to severe negative impacts or triggering systemic risks. The IMF recommends strengthening data collection and risk monitoring, as well as implementing prudent regulatory measures.

HANetf and HSBC have launched pound and euro hedged Bitcoin exchange-traded commodities (ETC), claiming to be the world's first such products that provide Bitcoin exposure while reducing the impact of dollar exchange rate fluctuations.The pound hedged product GBTC is already trading on the London Stock Exchange, while the euro hedged product EBTC is trading on Xetra and the pan-European Paris Stock Exchange, with HSBC providing currency hedging services. The products are aimed at long-term Bitcoin investors concerned about a weakening dollar, allowing investors to avoid managing custody themselves.

European ETF and ETC platform HANetf has launched the Arrow Bitcoin EUR Hedged ETC (EBTC), which, according to HANetf, is the world's first Bitcoin ETC that offers euro exchange rate hedging.The product aims to provide euro-denominated investors with exposure to Bitcoin prices while reducing the impact of euro to dollar exchange rate fluctuations on investment returns, with the related currency hedging provided by HSBC.

Real estate investment company Cardone Capital founder Grant Cardone stated that commercial real estate is facing a historic reset. He pointed out that in a high-interest-rate environment, commercial real estate prices have been driven down below replacement costs, which presents an opportunity to store wealth through Bitcoin. Cardone mentioned that his goal is to accumulate 25,000 Bitcoins while holding 25,000 apartments.Cardone referred to real estate as his "Trojan Horse" for allocating Bitcoin and introduced Cardone Capital's Bitcoin real estate trading model, which relies on property cash flow to continuously increase Bitcoin holdings, with a target of growing from 3,000 to 25,000 Bitcoins. He stated that traditional REITs cannot hold Bitcoin, which creates a competitive barrier for the company, and believes that Bitcoin and real estate are an ideal mixed asset. He also discussed Michael Saylor's related views and a $335 million transaction located in Boca Raton, and responded to questions about whether Cardone Capital would go public.

According to The Block, Ethena is incorporating tokenized U.S. stocks and Binance stock perpetual contracts into the foundational trading support strategy of USDe. Among them, Binance bStocks will serve as the tokenized spot support asset, while Ethena will hedge through Binance stock perpetual contracts to maintain Delta neutrality.The Ethena Risk Committee has previously approved the inclusion of tokenized stock foundational trading into the allocation strategy. Ethena stated that the open interest of Binance stock perpetual contracts has currently exceeded $2.9 billion, with a monthly average compound growth rate of 105% this year, and the average annualized return of stock foundational trading over the past six months has been 3.56%; the company expects that as more stock market assets go on-chain, the opportunity size of stock perpetual contracts will ultimately significantly exceed that of the cryptocurrency perpetual contract market.Guy Young, founder of Ethena Labs, stated that this is the most important expansion of its funding mechanism since the launch of USDe.

The "Whale" has set 10 major goals and updated its Bitcoin strategy on the X platform, stating that it has firmly aimed for $100,000 since the initial rebound of BTC from the bottom of $58,000. However, due to a failed attempt to judge the top along the way, it missed out on a significant portion of profits, and the current average entry position for its long positions is approximately $78,000.Regarding future operations, JasonLeo stated that if BTC falls below $79,000 again, it will begin to gradually close long positions; if it quickly rises to $100,000 in the short term, it will consider establishing some defensive short positions in the range of $98,000 to $105,000 to hedge against weekly-level pullback risks. If BTC stabilizes above $108,000 on the daily chart, the aforementioned short position logic will become invalid. If BTC does not directly surge but instead engages in thorough trading within the range of $80,000 to $100,000, it will consider taking defensive actions in the range of $115,000 to $125,000.

Analyst Killa posted on platform X, stating plans to hedge 50% of his Bitcoin exposure in the range of $89,000 to $94,000, marking his first short position in months.Killa mentioned that, as he stated 1 to 3 days ago, he previously had no intention to short the same high point that continued to consolidate below him; if the price stabilizes above $97,000, this hedging strategy will become ineffective.