Corporate adoption of bitcoin BTC is well-known, and most of it involves a classic buy-and-hold strategy, loosely analogous to the dollar-cost averaging (DCA) strategy.

While investors of all kinds widely prefer DCA, new research by crypto options market maker Orbit Markets shows that since 2023, it has underperformed a structured product called an «accumulator,» popularly known as «I Kill You Later» in traditional markets.

«Our backtest results show that the accumulator strategy outperformed DCA over the past 2.5-year period,» said Pulkit Goyal, head of trading at Orbit Markets, told CoinDesk. «Three-month accumulators delivered a 10% outperformance, while longer tenors did even better — six- and twelve-month accumulators outperformed by 13% and 26%, respectively.»

Goyal added that accumulators offer a disciplined, cost-effective approach to token accumulation, making them «a natural fit for crypto treasury companies’ use case.»

Both DCA and the accumulator operate the same principle – stop timing the market. While DCA simplifies investing by spreading out purchases over time, the accumulator helps acquire coins at a discount in a structured setup and helps outperform DCA during bull runs.

Primer on accumulator

The accumulator is a time-structured product linked to the performance of an underlying asset with an upside knock-out barrier – level, which, if hit, terminates the structure.

Here is how it works: An investor agrees to buy a certain amount of the underlying asset at a fixed, discounted price (the Strike) over regular intervals, such as daily or weekly, for a set period.

The product runs through the pre-determined set period unless terminated early due to an early knock-out by the spot price rising to the barrier.

Note that the investor has an obligation, not a choice, to buy the asset at the discounted strike price and must double the buy in case the spot price dips below the discounted strike.

Example of BTC accumulator

Consider a three-month accumulator where an investor commits to buy $1,000 worth of BTC every week at a strike price of $94,500, with a knock-out level of $115,000.

The strike price of $94,500 is 90% of the current spot price of around $105,000. In other words, the investor is now mandated to snap up coins at a discount, assuming the spot price holds above the strike price of $94,500 and below the knock-out of $115,000.

If BTC tops the knock-out level, the structure is terminated.

If the price falls below $94,500, the investor doubles the weekly purchase to $ 4,000 at the same strike, i.e., $94,500 – there is no way out, meaning the investor ends up buying at a price higher than the prevailing market rate. (this is why it gets the nickname «I kill you later.»)

Hence, the accumulator is not suitable for day traders, short-term traders and speculators and may not necessarily outperform DCA in a bear market.

Backtesting

Orbit backtested a three-month BTC accumulator, spanning from January 2023 to June 13, 2025, assuming the investor continuously rolled into a new one upon reaching maturity or a premature knock-out event.

Results show an average BTC acquisition cost of $39,035 for the accumulator, which is 10% lower than the DCA average purchase price of $43,329. The DCA involved investing a fixed dollar amount in BTC every week.

Longer maturity accumulators of 6 and 12 months performed even better, achieving average costs of $37,654 and $32,079, respectively, outperforming DCA by 13% and 26%.