Crypto expert, arbitrage trader and investor
Crypto expert and hands-on crypto arbitrage trader, investor and software developer with over 20 years of experience. On the P2P.Army blog he covers exchange news, P2P and cross-exchange arbitrage.
68 articles
Antonio Merkle is a crypto expert and hands-on crypto arbitrage trader, an investor and a software developer with over 20 years of experience.
On the P2P.Army blog he covers crypto exchange and P2P platform news and writes reviews, ratings and arbitrage courses — based on official sources and P2P.Army data.
How we prepare our articles:
Questions about an article: Telegram @p2p_army_support or support@p2p.army
A spot leg pays no funding and cannot be liquidated — so spot + futures setups are simpler and sturdier than perp + perp, but need more capital. We look at the screener’s three directions, hedging coins you already hold, and real spot–perp spreads on BTC and ETH.
The same perpetual future costs different amounts on two exchanges. We buy the cheap one, sell the expensive one and wait for prices to converge. On a real pair we look at what the result is made of and why a spread may never converge to zero.
Cash-and-carry is the only trade in this course where convergence is guaranteed by the contract rules: at expiry the dated future is settled against the index. We calculate it on real Binance prices from October 31, 2026 and see how much of 5% a year remains after fees and margin.
Prices are aligned by arbitrageurs who buy cheaper and sell higher. A spread lives where something gets in their way: a thin order book, closed withdrawals, capital controls, panic. We look at the causes of spreads on real cases — from a 95% premium on Upbit after a hack to a $300 ETH price gap between Binance and Hyperliquid.
One coin trades on three markets at once: spot, the perpetual future and a dated future with an expiry date. The difference between their prices — the basis — is the source of every spread in this course. Using real Binance prices, we look at why the BTC quarterly future costs more than spot and how much that is per year.
Opening a setup is half the job. While it is open, the price moves, margin flows between the legs and the rate difference changes. We look at what to check every day, how to rebalance margin, when to close and how to sum up the trade.
Putting it all together: from choosing a pair in the scanner to two open positions with alerts. A checklist worth going through before every trade, and why your first setup should be small.
Two opposite positions cancel out price moves but do not protect against anything else. We go through the risks that made delta-neutral positions lose money — from negative funding to the October 10, 2025 crash, when auto-deleveraging closed hedges and the collateral stablecoin on Binance was worth less than 66 cents.
The table shows the rate right now, but you will earn on the rates of the coming days. The pair page shows how stable the difference is, what entry costs and whether the setup hides a trap: different intervals, stale data, the same ticker for different coins.
We go through the funding scanner table column by column on a real row: what Rate 1 and Rate 2 mean, why a negative price spread is your entry cost, how the 24h projection differs from history and which filters a beginner should turn on.
Funding arrives bit by bit, while fees and the price spread are paid up front. Using two illustrative examples — perp + perp and spot + perp — we count how many payments break-even takes, how leverage changes returns and the liquidation buffer, and why “APR 200%” in a calculator promises nothing.
Funding arbitrage means two opposite positions of the same size: their price changes cancel out while funding remains. We look at four schemes, when each one works and what price neutrality costs you.
