If you're the type of degen who likes to juice returns with leverage — whether it's riding a Bitcoin rally or trying to turn a $500 meme bag into a yacht — you've probably wondered which tool actually performs better over time: a 3x long perpetual futures position or a 3x daily leveraged ETF.

On paper, the perp should win. No daily reset, no beta slippage, clean continuous leverage.

But today Icebergy (dev behind CryptoWhaleBot and respected angel investor) reminded everyone why theory dies the moment it meets crypto reality.

In [his post](https://x.com/Icebergy/status/1993739099107144159 that quickly pulled in traders and analysts, he simply wrote:

3x long perp position should offer better performance than the 3x levered etfs but think with the crypto funding rates they don’t

The replies instantly agreed.

One trader summed it up perfectly:

"funding eats profits on perp longs, funding asymmetry plus compounding and financing drag often make leveraged ETFs outperform over time"

Another added:

"in theory, perps should outperform because they don’t suffer from the same daily rebalancing drag. But with crypto’s funding dynamics, it flips fast"

Why Perps Should Theoretically Win

Daily-reset leveraged ETFs (think TQQQ in TradFi or the new wave of 2x/3x Bitcoin ETFs) suffer from volatility decay.

On volatile, range-bound days the constant rebalancing grinds the value down even if the underlying ends flat.

Perps don’t have that problem — leverage is applied continuously, so in a strong trending market they should compound more efficiently.

Why They Usually Don’t in Crypto

Funding rate.

When everyone is bullish and piled into longs (which is most of crypto bull markets), funding goes positive and stays there for weeks or months.

You, the long, pay the shorts every 8 hours.

That’s a hidden but very real carrying cost.

Over a multi-month hold it can easily eat 20-50%+ of your gains, sometimes more if funding spikes.

The daily-reset ETF, for all its flaws, doesn’t have that continuous funding bleed.

Suddenly the decay you avoided gets outweighed by the funding you’re paying.

Result: the “inferior” product sometimes wins.

When This Hurts the Most

• Holding through an entire parabolic leg (exactly when most people want 3x exposure)
• Bull markets with low volatility stretches where funding stays stubbornly positive
• Altcoin perps (funding tends to be even more extreme than BTC/ETH)

When Perps Still Win

• Short-term trades (days to a couple weeks)
• Bear markets or when funding flips negative (you collect instead of pay)
• Very strong trending moves with minimal pullbacks

Bottom Line for Meme Degens & Leverage Apes

Most of us aren’t patiently holding 3x BTC for six months — we’re swinging, gambling on pumps, and getting rekt or rich in days.

For that, perps are still king.

But if you ever find yourself saying “I’m just gonna hold this 3x long through the whole bull run,” remember Icebergy’s line.

The funding monster is real, and it’s hungry.

Check funding before you go to sleep on a big leveraged position — it might save your bag.