The LSE Directory / Crypto exchanges
dYdX operates a decentralised exchange for crypto perpetual futures, currently running as dYdX Chain, a purpose-built Cosmos SDK blockchain (version 4, live since late 2023) rather than a smart contract on a shared network. Traders open leveraged long or short positions across more than 200 crypto markets through a central limit order book, connecting with a self-custody wallet rather than depositing funds with a company; the protocol takes no KYC and states it is not available to persons in the United States or other restricted jurisdictions. Where many decentralised perpetuals venues use an automated market maker or vault based liquidity model, dYdX matches orders on a central limit order book, closer in feel to a centralised exchange, which appeals to more active and algorithmic traders who want limit, stop and, as of 2026, TWAP and scale order types. Running its own dedicated blockchain rather than deploying on a general purpose chain gives the network control over throughput and fee structure, and no central entity collects protocol trading fees; governance sits with DYDX token holders acting through the Swiss dYdX Foundation and community subDAOs. By 2026, however, dYdX has slipped well down the perpetuals league table: industry trackers place it around sixth by monthly volume (roughly 25 to 30 billion dollars) and TVL (roughly 300 to 400 million dollars), behind category leader Hyperliquid and newer entrants Lighter and Aster. dYdX was founded in 2017 by Antonio Juliano, a Princeton computer science graduate and former Coinbase and MongoDB software engineer, initially as a margin trading and lending protocol on Ethereum before pivoting to perpetual futures. The company raised roughly 87 million dollars across a 2 million dollar seed round in 2017 co-led by a16z crypto and Polychain Capital, a 10 million dollar Series A in 2018 with the same lead investors, a 10 million dollar Series B in 2021, and a 65 million dollar Series C in 2021 led by Paradigm. The Swiss, non-profit dYdX Foundation was established in 2021 to distribute the DYDX governance token and support protocol development. The exchange migrated off a StarkWare based Ethereum layer 2 (v3) onto its own Cosmos appchain (v4) in late 2023, removing dYdX Trading Inc. from fee collection and order book operation entirely. Juliano stepped down as CEO in May 2024, with Ivo Crnkovic-Rubsamen taking over, then returned to the role in October 2024. dYdX states cumulative lifetime trading volume of about 1.5 trillion dollars across v3 and v4 combined. On 1 July 2026, dYdX Labs and Robinhood Crypto jointly launched Arcus, a separate decentralised exchange for tokenised US stocks and equity perpetual futures, built on Robinhood Chain, Robinhood's new EVM compatible layer 2. Arcus opened with spot trading across 95 tokenised stocks; perpetual futures remained in private beta on a waitlist. Eddie Zhang, previously of the dYdX-acquired trading startup Pocket Protector, became Arcus's chief executive and co-founder, while Juliano moved to an Arcus board seat; dYdX Labs said it would keep supporting dYdX Chain v4 but signalled that active development effort would concentrate on Arcus going forward. The DYDX token fell about 23 percent in the 24 hours following the announcement.
