Arcus chooses “stepfather” Robinhood Chain, while “biological father” dYdX makes an awkward save
- Core Thesis: The dYdX team launched Arcus, a new DEX on Robinhood Chain focused on zero-fee trading of tokenized stocks, sparking market concerns that the value of dYdX Chain and the DYDX token may be marginalized, causing the DYDX price to drop over 12%.
- Key Elements:
- Robinhood Chain officially launched its public mainnet, built on the Arbitrum technology stack, positioning itself as an AI-native, institutional-grade Layer 2 network designed for RWA.
- Leading protocols such as Uniswap, Chainlink, and Ethena announced integration with Robinhood Chain, covering core tracks including trading, lending, and oracles.
- Arcus is a decentralized exchange developed by the dYdX team, offering 7×24 hour zero-fee trading for 95 tokenized stocks and perpetual contracts on Robinhood Chain.
- Arcus plans to issue a token in the future and allocate a portion of it to the dYdX community. The dYdX founder stated that dYdX Chain will continue to receive support and will not shut down.
- The core market concern is whether dYdX Chain and the DYDX token can share in the value growth if Arcus generates revenue, as the outlook for resource allocation remains unclear.
Original Article: Odaily (@OdailyChina)
Author: Asher (@Asher_0210)
Early yesterday morning, Robinhood announced the official launch of its own Layer 2 network, Robinhood Chain, on the public mainnet. Built on the Arbitrum technology stack, it is positioned as an institution-grade, permissionless, AI-native chain specifically designed for Real World Assets (RWA).
In other words, Robinhood's goal isn't simply to add another chain to the crypto landscape, but to integrate stocks, RWAs, lending, trading, and on-chain financial products into its own unified infrastructure.
As a major platform enters the fray, key ecosystem players quickly lined up.
Leading protocols including Uniswap, 1inch, Lighter, Morpho, Chainlink, BitGo, Ethena, and EtherFi have successively announced their integration with Robinhood Chain, covering core crypto sectors such as trading, liquidity, lending, oracles, custody, and cross-chain functionality.
Overview of Robinhood Chain Ecosystem Projects
However, within this wave of ecosystem integration, Arcus, a new DEX launched by the dYdX team, has become the focal point of community discussion.
Community users are raising questions: Is dYdX Labs shifting its focus towards Arcus? Will the original dYdX Chain be marginalized? Can the DYDX token continue to capture protocol value in the future? And how exactly will Arcus relate to the dYdX ecosystem?
Affected by these related controversies, DYDX has dropped over 12% in the last 24 hours, with its current market cap temporarily reported at $108 million.
DYDX Token 7-Day K-line Chart
What is Arcus? Trade Tokenized Stocks 24/7 with Zero Fees
Arcus: A Decentralized Exchange Built by the dYdX Team; Early Waitlist Now Open
Arcus is a decentralized exchange built by the dYdX team, now live on Robinhood Chain, offering 24/7 zero-fee trading for 95 tokenized stocks and perpetual contracts. Arcus supports the trading of tokenized stocks, commodities, indices, and crypto assets. All tokenized stocks are issued and redeemable on Robinhood Chain, allowing for self-custody and integration with the DeFi ecosystem.
Arcus x Robinhood: Trade Stocks and Perpetuals Around the Clock
Currently, Arcus has opened an early access waitlist (link: https://waitlist.arcus.xyz/). Users can complete the interaction by linking their personal X (Twitter) account and wallet.
Arcus Early Access Waitlist Now Open
Furthermore, Arcus plans to support tokenized stocks and crypto assets as collateral for perpetual contracts in the future, and will also offer pre-IPO trading for popular private companies like OpenAI.
Future Arcus Tokens Allocated to the dYdX Community
At first glance, Arcus, the DEX developed by the dYdX team, capitalizes on this year's crypto narrative – tokenized stocks. However, the issue lies in the fact that Arcus is not deployed on the dYdX Chain but instead runs on Robinhood Chain, operating as an independent product with its own independent infrastructure. This means dYdX Labs is building a new growth story, but this story does not place the dYdX Chain or the DYDX token at its core.
Adding to the nuance, dYdX founder Antonio Juliano stated in the latest dYdX documentation that "a portion of future Arcus tokens will be allocated to the dYdX community." While intended to reassure the existing community, this statement has directly amplified expectations for an Arcus token launch, leading many users to focus more on potential new airdrop opportunities.
Arcus Tokens to be Allocated to dYdX Community
Considering that dYdX conducted one of the largest airdrops in the industry, once Arcus initiates trading incentives, point activities, or early user programs, it is likely to attract a portion of traders and liquidity to shift towards the new platform. For dYdX Chain, this means its already pressured trading volume and activity could face further fragmentation.
dYdX Founder Responds: Arcus is a New Product; dYdX Chain Will Not Shut Down
In response to community concerns, dYdX founder Antonio Juliano posted an explanation stating that dYdX Chain has gone deep into decentralization, featuring an open-source architecture, community governance, over 200 markets, and more than 50 validators running the order book.
However, he acknowledged that this path involved trade-offs in terms of performance and user experience. With increasing competition in on-chain derivatives, the market is rewarding trading platforms that offer faster speeds, simpler experiences, and more concentrated liquidity. Arcus was born against this backdrop.
Furthermore, Antonio stated that Eddie Zhang will serve as CEO and Founder of Arcus, while he himself will join the board, focusing on strategy and long-term vision. In other words, Arcus is not a new feature on dYdX Chain, but a new trading platform pursued separately by dYdX Labs.
For the existing community, Antonio stated that dYdX v4 will continue to receive support, user funds and positions will remain accessible on the dYdX Chain; if Arcus issues a token in the future, it will set aside a portion of the allocation for the dYdX community, prioritizing users who have previously engaged in trading, staking, validation, and community building on dYdX.
Subsequently, the dYdX Foundation further emphasized that Arcus is an independent product built on independent infrastructure, and the dYdX Chain will not be affected. DYDX remains the governance and staking token for the dYdX Chain, with its mechanics, supply, and operational characteristics unchanged. Currently, there are no plans for any token swap or migration.
However, the market's concern extends beyond whether the dYdX Chain "still works."
The real question is: If Arcus generates significant trading volume and revenue in the future, will the dYdX Chain share in that growth? If Arcus issues a new token, what rights will DYDX holders obtain? How will dYdX Labs allocate its subsequent resources between Arcus and the dYdX Chain?
Until these questions about value capture are clearly answered, Arcus represents a new story for dYdX Labs, but for DYDX holders, it appears more like a puzzle waiting to be solved.
