STRC: From Getting In to Turning a Profit—How I Got In!
Now that STRC’s price has stabilized and mostly returned to its peg, most people who held STRC, sUSDat, or apyUSD early on are in profit—as long as they didn’t sell at a loss along the way. But a few months ago, things were completely different. I used only part of my high-risk allocation, as planned, but after one decline after another, I had nearly wiped out that portion, with unrealized losses at one point exceeding 30%.
Looking back, I realized the key wasn’t whether to touch STRC. It was that once the relationships between these tokens’ coefficients became misaligned, tradable price spreads emerged. So I’m breaking down the whole journey—from getting in and getting stuck to recovering and turning a profit—as a series. This first post is about how I got in.
In March and April, STRC and Apyx were being discussed frequently on X. The market was sluggish and crypto thefts were rampant, so I watched from the sidelines for a long time. It wasn’t until apxUSD launched on Kraken that I gave up on apxUSD’s low APY (I knew at the time that it had exposure to STRC) and put one-fifth of my high-risk allocation into apyUSD, aiming for an APY of around 40%.
Then Saturn caught my attention. It also had two tokens: the stablecoin USDat and sUSDat, which has exposure to STRC. sUSDat’s net asset value falls when STRC goes ex-dividend, and historically its price has usually returned to its peg afterward. I allocated another one-fifth of my high-risk portfolio to trading the ex-dividend drop and subsequent recovery. After the ex-dividend date, I’d hold for about 15 days; over the first two months, the return was roughly 2–3%. I thought I could earn around six months’ worth of returns at a 40% APY before the TGE in October.
After STRC went ex-dividend in early June, it failed to stabilize. On the evening of June 4, it fell nearly 8%, and sUSDat dropped in tandem. Assuming it was a depeg, I kept buying the dip. Unexpectedly, the stablecoin apxUSD fell too, and apyUSD fell even harder, dropping as much as 30% at one point. Fortunately, I’d previously unwound a few layers of looping positions to trade YT, which kept me from being liquidated. Believing STRC wouldn’t collapse, I kept adding to my positions. Eventually, apyUSD and sUSDat each made up half of my high-risk allocation. Including the looping loans, apyUSD was down more than 50%, while STRC itself had fallen only about 7%.
The nightmare was only beginning. STRC plunged twice more, on June 6 and 27, reaching a low of only about 68% of its peg. By then, I had already used up my entire high-risk allocation. My position-sizing plan saved me by keeping me from putting all my funds in, but because I was determined to stick to it, I could only shuffle around my existing positions and try to get myself out of trouble.
In the next post, I’ll cover the first and most effective arbitrage route: re-examining the coefficient relationship between apxUSD and apyUSD.
This is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
BitHappy, constantly evolving
Now that STRC’s price has stabilized and mostly returned to its peg, most people who held STRC, sUSDat, or apyUSD early on are in profit—as long as they didn’t sell at a loss along the way. But a few months ago, things were completely different. I used only part of my high-risk allocation, as planned, but after one decline after another, I had nearly wiped out that portion, with unrealized losses at one point exceeding 30%.
Looking back, I realized the key wasn’t whether to touch STRC. It was that once the relationships between these tokens’ coefficients became misaligned, tradable price spreads emerged. So I’m breaking down the whole journey—from getting in and getting stuck to recovering and turning a profit—as a series. This first post is about how I got in.
In March and April, STRC and Apyx were being discussed frequently on X. The market was sluggish and crypto thefts were rampant, so I watched from the sidelines for a long time. It wasn’t until apxUSD launched on Kraken that I gave up on apxUSD’s low APY (I knew at the time that it had exposure to STRC) and put one-fifth of my high-risk allocation into apyUSD, aiming for an APY of around 40%.
Then Saturn caught my attention. It also had two tokens: the stablecoin USDat and sUSDat, which has exposure to STRC. sUSDat’s net asset value falls when STRC goes ex-dividend, and historically its price has usually returned to its peg afterward. I allocated another one-fifth of my high-risk portfolio to trading the ex-dividend drop and subsequent recovery. After the ex-dividend date, I’d hold for about 15 days; over the first two months, the return was roughly 2–3%. I thought I could earn around six months’ worth of returns at a 40% APY before the TGE in October.
After STRC went ex-dividend in early June, it failed to stabilize. On the evening of June 4, it fell nearly 8%, and sUSDat dropped in tandem. Assuming it was a depeg, I kept buying the dip. Unexpectedly, the stablecoin apxUSD fell too, and apyUSD fell even harder, dropping as much as 30% at one point. Fortunately, I’d previously unwound a few layers of looping positions to trade YT, which kept me from being liquidated. Believing STRC wouldn’t collapse, I kept adding to my positions. Eventually, apyUSD and sUSDat each made up half of my high-risk allocation. Including the looping loans, apyUSD was down more than 50%, while STRC itself had fallen only about 7%.
The nightmare was only beginning. STRC plunged twice more, on June 6 and 27, reaching a low of only about 68% of its peg. By then, I had already used up my entire high-risk allocation. My position-sizing plan saved me by keeping me from putting all my funds in, but because I was determined to stick to it, I could only shuffle around my existing positions and try to get myself out of trouble.
In the next post, I’ll cover the first and most effective arbitrage route: re-examining the coefficient relationship between apxUSD and apyUSD.
This is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
BitHappy, constantly evolving