Dual Investment: Where the Yield Comes From—and Who Bears the Risk

October 18, 2026 · 9 min read

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“If the price goes up, you earn USDT. If it goes down, you earn more crypto.”

It sounds as though you come out ahead whichever way the market moves. Add an advertised annualized return of several dozen percent—or more—and dual investment can look like a more productive alternative to simply holding crypto.

But there is a catch: owning more units of an asset does not necessarily mean your investment is worth more.

What Is Dual Investment? #

Dual investment is a structured product. You deposit one asset and earn an agreed return. In exchange, you accept that, if certain conditions are met at maturity, your funds will be converted into another asset at a predetermined price.

Take BTC and USDT as an example. You can deposit either USDT or BTC. Which asset you receive at maturity depends on how the settlement price compares with the target price.

How “Buy Low” and “Sell High” Work #

Dual investment products typically come in two forms: Buy Low and Sell High.

Buy Low: Deposit USDT to Buy BTC #

Suppose BTC is trading at 80,000 USDT, and you choose a Buy Low product with a target price of 79,000 USDT:

• Deposit: 100 USDT
• Target price: 79,000 USDT
• Maturity: 4 p.m. the following day
• Annualized return: 38.462%

Under the terms of this example:

• If BTC is at or above 79,000 USDT at maturity, you receive approximately 100.08 USDT.
• If BTC is below 79,000 USDT, your principal and accrued return are converted into BTC at the target price.

This may sound like a way to wait for a better entry price. But remember: a target price below today’s market price is not necessarily below the market price at maturity.

If BTC falls to 76,000 USDT by maturity, you still receive BTC at the agreed price of 79,000 USDT—not at the lower market price of 76,000 USDT.

Sell High: Deposit BTC to Sell BTC #

If you deposit BTC instead, you can choose a Sell High product.

Again, suppose BTC is trading at 80,000 USDT. This time, you choose a Sell High product with a target price of 81,000 USDT.

The arrangement works as follows:

• If BTC is below 81,000 USDT at maturity, you receive your BTC principal plus the accrued return in BTC.
• If BTC is at or above 81,000 USDT, your principal and accrued return are converted into USDT at the target price.

The trade-off is straightforward: if BTC rises to 84,000 USDT, your funds are still converted at 81,000 USDT. You cannot switch to the higher market price at the last minute.

How Are Returns Calculated? #

Let’s return to the 100 USDT example and work through both the accrued return and the settlement amount.

Why Does a High Annualized Rate Earn Only 0.08 USDT? #

At an advertised annualized rate of 38.462%, using a 365-day year, the daily rate is approximately:

For a 100 USDT deposit earning a full day’s return, the total would be approximately:

But suppose you subscribe at 9:46 p.m., with maturity at 4 p.m. the next day. There is less than a full day left. Under the calculation assumed here, the return is prorated for the remaining time.

By 9:46 p.m., 5 hours and 46 minutes have passed since 4 p.m.—approximately 0.24028 days. The return for the remaining period is therefore:

That brings the total to approximately 100.08 USDT. To keep the rest of the examples simple, we will use 0.08% as the return for this investment period.

How Much BTC Do You Receive If Conversion Takes Place? #

If BTC is below 79,000 USDT at maturity, the principal and accrued return are converted into BTC at that target price.

The principal converts to:

The 0.08 USDT return converts to:

Together, they come to:

The next step is to value that BTC at the market price at maturity.

How Can You Earn a Yield and Still Lose Money? #

To make the comparison clearer, let’s increase the deposit to 80,000 USDT—enough to buy exactly 1 BTC at the initial market price. Everything else stays the same:

• Current BTC price: 80,000 USDT
• Deposit: 80,000 USDT
• Target price: 79,000 USDT
• Annualized return: 38.462%

Using the same prorated return of approximately 0.08%, the amount earned is:

The total amount to be settled at maturity is 80,064 USDT.

More BTC Can Still Be Worth Less #

Suppose BTC falls to 76,000 USDT at maturity. The BTC you receive is worth:

Compared with your initial 80,000 USDT deposit, that is a decline of approximately:

You now have more than the 1 BTC you could have bought at the start. Yet, measured in USDT, your investment is worth less.

If you had kept the original USDT and waited to buy BTC at 76,000 USDT, you could have bought:

That is more BTC than the dual investment product delivers.

You can earn the product’s stated return while still losing money on the investment as a whole.

More USDT Can Still Mean Missing Out on BTC’s Upside #

Now suppose BTC rises to 84,000 USDT at maturity. Under the Buy Low product’s terms, you receive 80,064 USDT.

You have earned 64 USDT on your initial deposit.

But if you had bought and held 1 BTC at the outset, you could sell it at maturity for 84,000 USDT.

The distinction is that dual investment pays an agreed return; it does not give you all the upside of owning BTC outright.

The USDT you earned is real. But earning a positive return and outperforming a buy-and-hold strategy are two different things.

Sell High Also Caps Your Upside #

Now consider the BTC deposit.

Suppose you deposit 1 BTC, choose a target price of 81,000 USDT, and earn the same 0.08% return for the period.

If the price triggers conversion at maturity, the BTC balance to be settled is:

Converted at the target price, that gives you:

If BTC is trading at 84,000 USDT, simply holding your original 1 BTC would leave you with an asset worth 84,000 USDT.

Your settlement amount does not keep growing as BTC rises above the target.

Conversely, if conversion is not triggered, you receive your principal and accrued return in BTC. You still bear the risk of BTC falling in value.

Where Does the Yield Come From? #

The yield is tied to your willingness to accept an obligation to convert assets.

In economic terms:

• Depositing USDT in a Buy Low product resembles selling a cash-secured put.
• Depositing BTC in a Sell High product resembles holding BTC and selling a call against it—a covered call.

Buy Low investors agree to buy BTC at the target price if the relevant conditions are met. Sell High investors agree to sell BTC at the target price if their conversion conditions are met.

Those obligations have value. Investors receive a return for taking them on, but they also accept the associated price risk.

For an introduction to premiums, strike prices, and the four basic option positions—buying calls, selling calls, buying puts, and selling puts—see Options 101. Here, the more important question is: will the agreed return be enough to cover a potential loss after conversion?

In the Buy Low example, the return for the period is just 64 USDT. After BTC falls to 76,000 USDT, however, the investment is worth approximately 2,976.41 USDT less than the original deposit.

The yield provides a small cushion. It does not eliminate downside risk.

Can Reinvesting in a Cycle Undo the Risk? #

A common approach is to alternate between the two products:

1. Use Buy Low while holding USDT.
2. Switch to Sell High after conversion into BTC.
3. Return to Buy Low after conversion back into USDT.

This resembles the options strategy known as the wheel.

Starting with the earlier example:

• You initially deposit 100 USDT.
• If there is no conversion at maturity, you receive approximately 100.08 USDT and can reinvest it.
• If conversion occurs, you receive approximately 0.001266835443 BTC and can switch to Sell High.
• If a later investment meets the sale conditions, you receive USDT and begin another cycle.

It is easy to see the appeal: whichever asset you receive, there is always a next step. Keep the cycle going, and it seems as though the returns should keep adding up.

But having a next move does not erase the loss from your previous one.

Suppose you receive BTC at a target price of 79,000 USDT, and the market subsequently trades at 76,000 USDT. Moving into Sell High can leave you with an uncomfortable choice:

• Choose a higher target price, and the quoted yield may be lower. Conversion back into USDT may also be less likely.
• Choose a lower target price, and you may get a higher quoted yield—but conversion could mean selling below the price at which you received the BTC.

If the market then rebounds sharply, that lower selling price can also limit how much of the recovery you capture.

This article explains how the product works. It is not investment advice.

The diagrams in this article were created with logic2image^[1].

Related readings

• Options 101: The Four Basic Positions Explained Through Gold