Renzo Expands Beyond Restaking With Hyperliquid Basis Strategy

Point of Focus

• Renzo is expanding beyond restaking with an automated, market-neutral basis strategy built on Hyperliquid.
• Hedge, yield and safety guards manage rebalancing, funding changes and liquidation risk.
• Renzo launches with BTC and HYPE, followed by ETH and potentially tokenized RWAs.

Renzo Finance is expanding beyond restaking into automated onchain yield strategies, launching Renzo Basis as the first product under its new business direction.

Formerly known as Renzo Protocol, the project said its new platform will focus on structured products and advanced yields as traditional assets increasingly move onchain. Renzo Basis will initially support Bitcoin and HYPE positions on Hyperliquid, with Ether expected to follow.

“Crypto is quickly maturing from airdrops and speculative use cases to traditional assets and markets coming onchain,” Lucas Kozinski, founder of Renzo Labs, told AlphaWire.

He expects the growth of real-world assets to create “a massive growth opportunity for onchain structured products and advanced yields.”

Renzo automates a complex basis trade

Basis trading typically involves buying an asset on the spot market while shorting an equivalent perpetual futures position. The setup aims to remain market-neutral while capturing positive funding payments from the short position.

However, traders must continuously monitor funding rates, leverage and liquidation risk. Renzo Basis automates those tasks through three safeguards: a hedge guard, a yield guard and a safety buffer.

“The three guards manage rebalancing, funding risk and leverage before liquidation becomes a concern, monitoring the position continuously rather than on a schedule,” Kozinski told AlphaWire.

During extreme volatility, including a liquidation cascade, the system can deleverage or close a position. However, protection varies according to the risk level selected by the user.

“The higher the leverage, the less effective these safeguards become,” Kozinski explained. “Conservative positions keep a wider buffer between market price and liquidation price; aggressive positions leave less room to deleverage before liquidation hits.”

Renzo has tested the strategy in production for six weeks using $500,000 in principal. Kozinski declined to promote a fixed return, noting that funding rates change hourly.

“Any APY figure we give publicly is a realized, trailing seven-day number rather than a headline rate,” he said.

Negative funding triggers an exit

Positive funding allows the short perpetual position to generate income, but that dynamic reverses when funding becomes negative.

“When funding goes negative, the short leg starts paying instead of earning,” Kozinski told AlphaWire.

“The yield guard fully closes the position after two days of negative funding.”

The strategy remains self-custodial. Users authorize a Hyperliquid agent wallet to place and manage orders, but the agent cannot withdraw funds, transfer assets or move money outside the account.

“The user can revoke that access or close the position at any time,” Kozinski added.

“Renzo cannot force-close a position under any circumstances; its only emergency control is pausing the automation.”

Bitcoin and HYPE lead initial launch

Renzo selected Bitcoin and HYPE because both have sufficiently liquid spot and perpetual markets on Hyperliquid, along with funding rates capable of supporting the strategy.

Ether will become the next compatible asset, while the longer-term roadmap includes tokenized equities and real-world assets.

“At launch, the only fees are Hyperliquid builder fees,” Kozinski said in response to questions from AlphaWire. “There is no performance or withdrawal fee.”

Those fees will flow into the Renzo DAO treasury. Future governance proposals will determine whether the protocol uses revenue generated by Renzo Basis for REZ token buybacks and burns.