Decentralized Exchange DYdX To Build Its Own Blockchain

The expansion is part of the exchange’s plan to be fully decentralized by the end of 2022

article-image
share
  • The goal for dYdX V4 is to have high throughput for the order book while remaining decentralized, the company said
  • DYdX is positioning itself as the largest decentralized derivatives exchange, with more than $690 million in trading volume in the past 24 hours

A crypto derivatives platform based on Ethereum layer-2 blockchains is developing its own blockchain.

The new product from dYdX plans to be based on Cosmos, using Tendermint’s proof-of-stake consensus protocol to validate transactions. Layer-2 protocols are built on top of popular blockchains, such as Ethereum and Bitcoin, and are typically used to increase efficiencies, add features and scale the technology. 

The game plan for dYdX V4 — the exchange laid out by the company in January — is to be fully decentralized by the end of the year. 

“Developing a decentralized, off-chain order book and matching engine and moving from Ethereum to a dYdX-specific chain as a major [decentralized finance] protocol is very much untested, but we believe it gives the dYdX ecosystem the best shot at having a network that could offer a long term competitive product experience with centralized exchanges,” the company said in a statement. 

Founded in 2017 by ex-Coinbase and Uber engineer Antonio Juliano, dYdX is positioning itself as the largest decentralized derivatives exchange — with more than $690 million in trading volume in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data. 

The company noted the existing dYdX product processes at about 10 trades per second and about 1,000 order placements/cancellations per second.

In the company’s vision for dYdX V4, each validator will “run an in-memory orderbook that is never committed to consensus” such as off-chain. Meanwhile, on a real time basis, “orders will be matched together by the network. The resulting trades are then committed on-chain each block.” 

A spokesperson for the company didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

In August 2020, dYdX partnered with StarkWare to scale decentralized trading. The company raised $65 million in a Series C funding round in June 2021 led by Paradigm.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Marina Bay Sands Singapore

October 7, 2026

DAS Asia is a a single-day summit at Marina Bay Sands Singapore featuring conversations between the builders, investors, and global leaders are shaping the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in Asia & North America.

Hilton Park Lane, London

November 10-11, 2026

DAS London is a two-day summit at the Hilton Park Lane in London featuring conversations between the builders, allocators, and policy makers who are shaping the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the UK, Europe, and North America.

recent research

Onchain Gacha Cover Image.png

Research

Onchain gacha platforms sold $284.3 million of digital card packs in July 2026, and Collector Crypt accounted for more than half of that activity. However, it buys back 92.9% of what it sells, which leaves it with a third of the category's revenue on more than half of its volume, and a quarter of its activity arrives through partner apps whose users it does not own. Courtyard runs the opposite model, a consumer app selling smaller packs to thousands of retail buyers who resell the cards to each other, and it took 59.7% of category revenue while growing through a month the category spent contracting. This report compares the five largest platforms on gross activity, buyback intensity, revenue after buybacks, consumer composition, marketplace liquidity, and distribution ownership, and finds Courtyard the strongest performer as of July 2026, with the qualification that none of the five discloses inventory costs or resale proceeds, so no platform in the category can yet be shown to be profitable.

Newsletter

The Breakdown

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Blockworks Research

Unlock crypto's most powerful research platform.

Our research packs a punch and gives you actionable takeaways for each topic.

SubscribeGet in touch

Blockworks Inc.

133 W 19th St., New York, NY 10011

Blockworks Network

PodcastsNewslettersEventsRoundtablesAnalytics