Bitwise's Crypto Carry Fund (USCC) has provided a detailed view of how institutional investors structure XRP carry trades to extract premiums from the futures market.
As of September 1, the fund held 10,781,438.36 XRP in custody against 10,510,000 short XRP futures contracts on Coinbase, creating a 97.48% hedge that left minimal directional exposure. The fund disclosed a 14.57% annualized implied yield on the position.
How the Yield Calculation Works
The strategy monetizes the spread between spot and futures prices. Bitwise's custody holdings were marked at approximately $1.3222 per XRP, while the September futures traded around $1.3342—a 0.91% premium. By holding the asset and shorting the future, the fund positions itself to capture this gap at settlement.
Bitwise defines the 14.57% figure as an annualized rate of the displayed futures holding if held to maturity. The fund separately reports a 30-day yield and charges a 0.75% management fee, with execution, financing, custody, margin and roll costs not specified in the public disclosure.
Residual Risks
Despite the near-perfect hedge, risks remain. Spot and futures prices can diverge before settlement, the fund must maintain custody and margin requirements, and the cash-settlement benchmark may differ from prices available for physical inventory. The unhedged 271,438.36 XRP retained direct price exposure.
Market Context
CFTC data as of August 25 showed 20,518 contracts of open interest in standard Coinbase XRP futures. Dealer and intermediary accounts held 17,853 long contracts, while leveraged funds held 13,822 outright shorts—the same directional side as Bitwise's disclosed hedge.
Bitwise's separate XRP ETF held 361,995,068.31 XRP in trust valued at approximately $531.3 million as of September 2, designed purely for spot XRP exposure, illustrating different institutional uses of the same asset under the Bitwise name.
