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dYdX Chain has passed a major milestone in its mainnet journey. The dYdX trading user interface has gone live, marking the start of the network’s Beta Stage. Users who connect to the trading interface are now invited to move their DYDX from Ethereum to dYdX Chain. The decision to launch the Beta Stage was decided by community vote and marks a new chapter in the nascent chain’s evolution.
Users who send their Ethereum-based DYDX to the smart contract using the dYdX migrate page will be issued wethDYDX on dYdX Chain. The chain officially went live on October 26 but because it is in Beta is operational for limited trading only at present. Ensuring network stability and security are the primary goals at this stage as well as optimizing the front-end now that dYdX markets are open for trading.
Beta Stage Lets Traders Try dYdX Chain
The Beta Stage that dYdX Chain is currently in will run for the foreseeable future. During this period, trading markets will be live but no trading rewards will be distributed – that comes later once the chain exits Beta. There are incentives for validators and stakers to migrate their assets to dYdX Chain, however, since these entities can accrue trading fees. More than 5.3 million DYDX is currently bonded for this purpose.
Over 33 markets are now supported on dYdX Chain. During the Alpha Stage, these were set to post-only but are now fully active. As a result, traders can post perpetual orders and enjoy the faster, cheaper onchain environment now that dYdX has left the Ethereum ecosystem.
During the Beta Stage, the protocol front-end has been provided by the dYdX Operations subDAO. Upon exiting this phase, there will eventually be other ways to interact with dYdX Chain using interfaces designed by third parties. Because the chain has been designed with decentralization paramount, all key decisions including adjustments to trading rewards and incentive programs must be decided by the DAO.
dYdX Chain Rewards Patience
The dYdX community has waited patiently for the arrival of dYdX Chain and its promise of supporting a cheap and fast environment for onchain leveraged trades. The network was built using Cosmos and makes use of a CometBFT consensus protocol. DYDX must be staked to participate in network consensus and governance and validators and stakers receive a share of trading fees in USDC.
Upon depositing their DYDX tokens to the new purpose-built chain, holders will need to exercise patience: settlement on dYdX Chain is expected to take almost 40 hours. This threshold will be reduced once the network exits Beta.
While dYdX was completing its migration to a dedicated network for perps trading, layer2s such as Arbitrum have emerged to capture a slice of the futures market. With dYdX Chain now live on mainnet, the pendulum is poised to swing the other way, bringing perps traders back to the decentralized ecosystem where it all began.