dYdX Expands into US Market with Lower Fees and Strategic Acquisitions

Decentralized crypto exchange dYdX is making significant strides into the U.S. market, with plans to launch by the end of the year. This move, which includes offering spot trading on Solana and related cryptocurrencies, marks a strategic expansion for the platform that has historically focused on derivatives and was unavailable to American users, according to CryptoNews.

President Eddie Zhang confirmed in an interview with Reuters that dYdX will cut trading fees by up to 50% across the board for its U.S. launch. This development follows a year of regulatory shifts in the U.S. after President Donald Trump’s pro-crypto stance led to the dismissal of lawsuits against major platforms and spurred regulators to create digital asset rules.

Lower Fees, Higher Regulatory Barriers

Upon entering the U.S. market, dYdX plans to reduce its trading fees to between 50 and 65 basis points. The San Francisco-based platform, which has surpassed $1.5 trillion in total trading volume since its inception, specializes in perpetual contracts that allow traders to speculate on asset prices without owning them or worrying about expiration dates. While these contracts will not initially be available to U.S. users, dYdX is optimistic that regulators will eventually permit decentralized platforms to offer such products.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have indicated their willingness to consider allowing crypto perpetual contracts on regulated U.S. platforms. Zhang highlighted the differences between decentralized exchanges like dYdX, which facilitate direct transactions on blockchain networks, and centralized exchanges such as Coinbase and Kraken, which act as intermediaries.

Strategic Growth Through Acquisition and Infrastructure

dYdX’s U.S. expansion is bolstered by its acquisition of Pocket Protector, a Telegram-native trading app. This deal, completed in July, brought in 50,000 users and achieved $1 billion in annualized volume in less than a year. Zhang, who joined dYdX as President through this acquisition, is expected to drive the platform’s growth alongside co-founder Kaiser Kinbote, now Head of Growth. Founder Antonio Juliano praised Zhang’s product development experience and strategic capabilities as key factors in the acquisition.

Pocket Protector’s features, including Telegram-based perpetual and spot trading, are being integrated into dYdX’s platform. An engineering team from Pocket Protector has joined dYdX to support these integration efforts and broader expansion strategies.

Platform Enhancements and Tokenomics Evolution

Throughout 2025, dYdX has implemented significant infrastructure improvements. The platform addressed stability issues during volatile market conditions by dedicating engineers to enhance its Indexer system, reducing downtime and throughput constraints. Integration with Skip has shortened deposit and withdrawal times from 18 minutes to under a minute.

New mobile interfaces and web platform enhancements, including new order types, have supported a trading volume of $270 billion and $46 million in net protocol fees across 150 markets in 2024. The platform’s cumulative trading volume has exceeded $1.46 trillion since 2021, highlighting its sustained growth.

In March, dYdX initiated a DYDX Buyback Program, allocating 25% of net protocol fees to buy and stake DYDX tokens. This initiative, governed by the community, aims to bolster network security and align platform growth with token value, with 85% of DYDX tokens now unlocked. Token emissions are set to decrease by 50% in June 2025, with all unlocks completed by June 2026. The dYdX Community Treasury holds approximately 190 million DYDX tokens, reserved for future initiatives to ensure ecosystem sustainability.

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