Fu Peng Discusses the Underlying Logic of Bitcoin: Large Holders as 'Landlords', Retail Leverage Trading as Rent Payment

On April 25, Fu Peng, the newly appointed chief economist of New Fire Group, published a series of tweets on platform X, dissecting what he sees as the underlying logic of Bitcoin. Fu stated that the underlying business models of Bitcoin perpetual contracts and ETFs are essentially the same as the ‘deferred fees/overnight fees’ in traditional finance’s gold/commodity spot exchanges. They represent a stable cash flow model where large holders maintain long positions to collect rent, while retail investors engage in leveraged buying, effectively paying rent, with platforms indirectly profiting. Large-scale spot holders are not merely speculating on price increases; they act like ‘landlords’: maintaining long positions and using hedging strategies to collect funding fees, continuously reducing their holding costs. As long as their positions do not shrink, the longer they hold, the lower their costs become, achieving almost ‘zero or even negative costs.’ ‘Many people mistakenly believe that large holders are only shorting; in fact, they are the landlords collecting rent. The premiums and discounts of CME Bitcoin futures essentially reflect the market’s pricing of these holding costs/rents, consistent with the logic of spot warehouse receipts, financing, and delivery from years past.’ BlockBeats believes that Fu’s remarks are not an endorsement or condemnation of Bitcoin, but rather a narrative from the perspective of a hedge fund manager, illustrating Bitcoin’s evolutionary journey: Bitcoin has evolved from a purely sentiment-driven speculative asset into a mature asset with structural positive yields (rents/funding rates), akin to gold and commodities. Large holders and platforms are the long-term beneficiaries of this game, while the long-term leveraged enthusiasm of retail investors essentially amounts to paying rent to others.