The Arbitrage Trade That Saved the Month
This trade added a crucial +23% to the portfolio this month. The stats? A 1% risk of losing the committed capital, with a potential reward of 40-50% on that capital. Was it worth it? Hell Yes!
Here’s how it played out:
Lucidao was undergoing an acquisition after struggling with funding, which was already on my radar. I’d been offloading LCD over the past two months, but news of a buyout changed things. Investors offered a buyout price of $0.01205 per LCD, above my average purchase price, locking in a direct 2% gain on the portfolio.
However, the buyout came with conditions. Only holders who verified their identities and met certain criteria could cash out. Plus, once the buyout started, the project would pull liquidity from the market, effectively making any unverified LCD unsellable. This set the stage for an arbitrage opportunity.
One seller, holding roughly $25,000 in LCD, wanted out fast, as shown by their on-chain activity. I was able to use this to my advantage, buying up their LCD at around $0.008—roughly a 50% discount from the buyout price. This is where on-chain data analysis paid off: understanding the seller’s urgency allowed me to capture a sizable position at low risk (only a 1% chance of buyout failure).

Breaking Down the Trade:
- First Accumulation (Spike 1)
My initial strategy was to buy quickly up to a comfort level, causing the first price spike. I paused, allowing the market to react and monitoring the seller’s behavior. - Second (biggest) Accumulation (between 1-2)
As expected, the seller re-entered the market and pushed the price down. This confirmed my suspicion that they needed to unload their entire $25,000 position. I let them keep selling until they reached their lowest acceptable price, at which point I acted fast, scooping up more LCD. Timing was key here—I needed to stay one step ahead of any other potential buyers. - Third Accumulation and Price Push (Point 2-3)
I continued buying up LCD while the anonymous seller offloaded more of their position, achieving an average buy price around $0.008. At this stage, another investor caught on and began mirroring my strategy, which added some competition. Once the seller finished unloading, I pushed the price up to my comfort level where there still was a 15% gain left on the table. The reasoning was simple: if the investors suddenly cancelled the buyout, I’d be left holding illiquid LCD, so putting more capital at risk wasn’t justifiable beyond this point. - Securing Profits (after point 4)
Finally, at Point 4, the investors launched their buyout contract, officially locking in the profits. From this moment on, it became a zero-risk arbitrage trade. However, as more investors noticed the opportunity and jumped in, profit margins thinned out quickly. Nonetheless, the trade closed profitably, securing solid gains for the month.
With the trade secure, I turned off my computer for some much-needed relief. It was a high-stakes, fast-moving strategy, but in the end, it was well worth the effort. This trade not only saved the month but underscored the value of combining market insight with on-chain analysis for precise, data-driven action. Without closely tracking their buyout terms and monitoring trades in real time, capturing this profit would have been impossible.