Choppy crypto markets punished trend-following funds in 2025, with violent swings erasing months of positioning. This year’s decisive selloff has offered a reprieve.
Digital-asset investment firm XBTO’s trend fund rose 13.3% last month, its second-best since launching in February 2024, as Bitcoin fell more than 10% and Ether dropped 18%. The gain was driven by a timely flip to short positions as crypto markets broke lower in the final week of January, with more than seven percentage points of the return coming in those last few days, according to Karl Naim, the firm’s chief commercial officer.