One of the steadiest winners in Bitcoin’s latest run-up may be a group that is not trying to call the market at all. ABMedia, citing a CoinDesk report dated Aug. 28, said crypto market makers are using delta-neutral strategies to profit from Bitcoin trading conditions while taking little to no directional price risk.
How the delta-neutral setup works
A delta-neutral strategy is built around reducing net directional exposure to zero. One standard approach is to hold spot Bitcoin while opening an equal-sized short position in the derivatives market.
With that structure in place, the value of the principal is meant to stay broadly insulated from moves in Bitcoin’s price, whether the market rises or falls. The profit does not come from correctly predicting direction. It comes from structural sources inside the market, including perpetual futures funding rates, the premium of futures over spot prices known as basis, and staking rewards.
For market makers, that offers a way to collect income during a bull market without carrying the same directional risk as outright long traders.
Two main profit engines in a bull market
Funding rates
The first source is the funding rate in perpetual futures. Perpetual contracts use periodic payments between longs and shorts to keep the contract price aligned with the spot market.
In a rising market, retail traders often prefer leveraged long positions, and funding rates tend to turn clearly positive. That means longs pay shorts. A market maker that holds spot BTC and shorts perpetuals can hedge price exposure and keep receiving those payments at the same time.
ABMedia said positive funding rates of 0.01% to 0.05% every eight hours are not uncommon in the market. Annualized, that can add up to a substantial return.
Basis trades
The second source is basis trading. Crypto futures often trade above spot prices. A trader can buy spot and short the richer futures contract, then lock in the spread as the two prices converge by expiry.
When market momentum is strong and leverage demand builds, both funding-rate income and basis-trade returns can increase. In that setting, some of the most consistent gains during a Bitcoin rally may go not to traders chasing upside, but to market makers quietly collecting structural yield.