Spiko Cash & Carry
Let your cash work harder with a cash & carry strategy on digital assets.
Put your extra cash to work
What is a cash & carry strategy?
I buy an asset or financial instrument—e.g., a certain amount of wheat or a government bond—paying the agreed price upfront.
Simultaneously, I sell that same asset via a forward contract, committing to deliver it at a future date (usually one month) at a price fixed today.
I am now fully protected from price fluctuations. This strategy locks in the difference between the purchase price (Step 1) and the selling price (Step 2), generating a return on my cash over the chosen time horizon—e.g., one month.
The strategy only works if the forward price (Step 2) exceeds the spot price (Step 1). It is worthwhile only if this difference surpasses the return on risk-free assets, such as Treasury bills.
How does our cash & carry strategy work?
Digital assets, notably bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH), currently rank among the assets offering the most attractive cash & carry opportunities.
Each month, we allocate capital to the strategy with the highest expected return among:
- a cash & carry trade on BTC using the nearest futures contract listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME),
- the same trade on ETH,
- Treasury bills.
If T-bills are the most attractive option at the start of the month, Spiko Cash & Carry monitors daily whether entering a cash & carry trade on BTC or ETH is worthwhile. When conditions are favorable, the Treasury bills are sold to fund the carry trade. The position is then held until the futures contract expires, and the same strategy is repeated the following month.
This strategy is fully deterministic, developed by Spiko’s quantitative engineers, and detailed in the index rulebook available here. It is implemented by Marex, a leading commodities trading firm that acts as the fund’s sole counterparty.
Performance and allocation history
Source: Compass Financial Technologies - more details here
- Risk 1: Money market funds
- Short-duration bond funds
- Spiko Cash & Carry
- Risk 3: Long-duration bond funds
- Risk 4: Balanced funds (equities & bonds)
- Risk 5: European or U.S. equity ETFs
- Risk 6: Emerging markets equity ETFs
- Risk 7: Tech & crypto ETFs
Key figures
*Targeted net annual return after fees, based on 5 years of backtesting the fund's strategy.
Our partners
Custodian and fund admin
CACEIS, a subsidiary of the Crédit Agricole Group, takes care of asset custody and handles the accounting for Spiko Cash & Carry.
Fund counterparty
Marex, a global financial services firm specializing in trading and risk management, is implementing the Spiko Cash & Carry strategy.
Auditor
PwC conducts a semiannual audit of Spiko Cash & Carry’s accounts to ensure accuracy and compliance with current standards and regulations.
Product characteristics
FAQ
What risks are associated with Spiko Cash & Carry?
Spiko Cash & Carry has a low risk rating of 2/7 on the RSSI scale.
Capital may be at risk if Marex, the counterparty responsible for executing the Spiko Cash & Carry strategy, defaults.
Furthermore, the strategy is designed to optimize returns on a monthly basis, rather than generate daily interest. When the strategy is invested in a carry trade, the spot and futures prices of the underlying can diverge, potentially resulting in temporary losses over the course of the month.
How is this product structured from a regulatory standpoint?
Spiko Cash & Carry is set up as a French fonds professionnel spécialisé (professional specialized investment fund). In this regard, it is simply declared to the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF).
Why focus on digital assets?
Because they offer some of the most attractive cash & carry opportunities right now. Two factors explain this: first, the speculative appetite for this asset class, which drives steeply upward-sloping futures curves (in contango); and second, the still-limited presence of major financial institutions in this market, leaving these profit opportunities largely unarbitraged.
Which platforms are used to hold digital assets purchased on the spot market and to take futures positions?
Marex uses Coinbase to custody spot digital assets and the CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) to trade futures contracts. The CME is the world’s largest derivatives trading platform and features a clearinghouse that stands between buyers and sellers to eliminate counterparty risk.
Which customers are eligible for this product?
Spiko Cash & Carry is open to individuals and companies with a minimum initial subscription of €100,000.