A basis trade you can verify.
Open-source and self-hostable. Every study is published with its sealed design, including the ones that fail, and every figure can be re-derived from public data.
Animated illustration: the long spot leg and the short perpetual leg move as mirror images, so the net line stays close to flat whatever the price does.
Two legs. Price offsets. Funding remains.
The design under test holds spot ETH and BTC off-venue and shorts perpetual futures on the matching notional, on a deep venue. A price move shows up on both legs, in opposite directions. What is left is funding, net of all costs. The studies test whether that is worth running, and publish the answer either way.
ETH + BTC
Held off-venueMatching notional
On a deep venueClose to flat on price
Left: funding, net of all costsPerpetual futures never expire. A periodic funding payment keeps their price close to spot. When the perpetual trades above spot, longs pay shorts. When it trades below, shorts pay longs.
On the short side of the perpetual, hedged with spot. It receives funding when funding is positive and pays it when funding is negative.
No target rate. Once the book runs: the realized result, the modeled result and the drift between them, every week.
Every study. Including the failures.
We will publish every study, whatever the outcome, with its sealed design and its independent adversarial audit. A study that fails gets the same space as one that works. Every step below happens in public, and every figure we publish can be re-derived from public data.
- 01
Publish every study
Every study goes public, including the ones that fail. The failures show what the design had to survive.
- 02
Sealed designs
Each design is fixed before its study runs, then published in full. Anyone can hold the running system to it.
- 03
Adversarial audit
An independent auditor, with no ties to the maintainers, tries to break each study. The audit trail is public: objections, responses, rounds.
- 04
Paper first
The system runs on paper, in public, with its assumptions published.
- 05
Then real money
Then it runs with real money. Positions are attestable on-chain.
- 06
Drift, every week
Realized-vs-modeled drift is published next to the returns, every week.
The chain is the auditor.
Studies first. Then paper. Then real money.
All of it public. All of it verifiable. The ledger below fills as each study is released.
Studies
Each study publishes in full: the sealed design, the results, the post-mortem and the audit rounds.
Paper book
The system runs on paper, in public. Drift against the model is published every week.
Live book
The book flips to real money. Positions are attestable on-chain.
| No. | Study | Status | Audit trail | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Study 01, sealed. Opens when it is released. | Sealed | none | none |
| Next | The study after that, sealed. Opens when it is released. | Sealed | none | none |
Each row opens when its study is released.
How the trade works, from first principles.
What is a basis trade?
The gap between spot and futures prices, and how to hold it without taking a view on price.
Guide · BasicsHow perpetual funding works
Why perpetuals pay funding, who pays whom, and why the rate changes.
Guide · BasicsDelta-neutral, in plain terms
What the hedge removes, what it leaves behind, and where the risk goes.
No token.No fund.No deposits.No fees.
OpenBasis is open-source research software. There is nothing to buy and nowhere to deposit. No pool, no airdrop, no managed account.
Run it yourself, or follow the book.Anyone offering an OpenBasis token, fund, pool or deposit is not us.Who is behind OpenBasis?
A collective of quant and trading professionals and enthusiasts. The code, the studies and the published numbers are what to judge us by, and you should not need to trust us to check any of them.
Is there a token or a fund?
No. There is no token, no fund, no pool and no deposits. The product is the repo.
What does it earn?
The studies will tell you. They are public, sealed and adversarially audited. We don't give estimates or ranges before they are released.
Who holds the keys?
If you run it, you do. OpenBasis is self-hosted, with trade-only keys. The full custody design will be published with the design documents.
When does it go live?
The studies land in the coming weeks. Then the book runs on paper, then with real money. Each step is announced here, on X and in Telegram when it happens.
Is this investment advice?
No. OpenBasis is open-source research software. Nothing on this site is advice, a solicitation or an offer.
Follow the book.
Each study on the day it is released, and the notes in between.