Payout across a range of settlement prices
Same terms, only the settlement price changes. This is the curve marketing pages don't show you — where the strike helps and where it hurts.
| Settlement price | Exercised? | Dual investment value | vs. baseline |
|---|
Why the yield isn't the whole story
Dual investment (Binance calls it Dual Investment, OKX calls it Dual Currency Investment, some venues wrap it as "Shark Fin") advertises an eye-catching APY — often 10-40% annualized — because that number is real and always paid. What it doesn't advertise as loudly is that the product is non-principal-protected: the currency you get back depends entirely on whether the market crosses your strike price by settlement, and the strike locks your conversion rate regardless of how far past it the market runs.
In Buy Low mode, you're effectively selling a put option on the coin: if price stays above your strike, you keep your USDT plus yield — a good outcome if you didn't want the coin yet anyway. If price drops to or below your strike, you're converted into the coin at that strike price. That's fine if the strike was a real discount to today's price and the coin recovers — but if the crash keeps going well below your strike, you're now holding a depreciating asset you were obligated to buy, and the yield rarely compensates for a sustained drawdown.
In Sell High mode, you're effectively selling a call: if price stays below your strike, you keep your coin plus yield. If price rallies to or past your strike, you're sold out at that strike — capturing the move up to the strike plus yield, but missing everything above it. A coin that doubles past your strike still only pays you the strike price; the rest of the rally goes to whoever bought the option from the platform.
The practical takeaway: pick strikes you're genuinely comfortable being forced into on either side, size the investment like you would any options-adjacent position (see the options straddle calculator and covered call calculator for the option-selling math this mirrors), and treat the APY as compensation for strike risk — not as free money layered on top of your existing view.