According to ChainCatcher, citing CoinDesk, data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) shows that hedge funds have shorted ETH worth $1.73 billion on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), which is favored by institutional traders. CME data also indicates that the ETH leverage net position is heavily biased towards the short side.
It is reported that basis trading involves shorting an asset on one platform while buying it on another to maintain a delta-neutral price fluctuation. In this case, traders can obtain approximately 9.5% annualized returns by shorting ETH on CME and buying spot ETF (currently managing assets of around $12 billion).
Additionally, traders shorting ETH can earn an extra approximately 3.5% annualized return by purchasing spot ETH and staking it. It is worth noting that spot ETF buyers cannot choose this method, as the Ethereum spot ETF currently does not support staking services.
