dYdX Chain trading goes live, enters beta stage following governance vote

The standalone Cosmos-based Layer 1 dYdX Chain has entered its beta mainnet phase, allowing active trading to go live for the first time following a decisive board vote.

dYdX Chain’s beta launch, which transitioned from alpha, took place on Monday at 8:45 a.m. EST, according to a blog post by the dYdX Operations subDAO, which runs the decentralized infrastructure for dYdX Chain. The launch followed a community votes to change trading on all markets from post-only to active, which received over 99% support.

Users can now trade on over 33 perpetual markets through the dydx.trade platform, which offers up to 20x leverage. No trading rewards will be handed out during this phase, but validators and stakers will accrue trading fees, according to the release. “The beta phase serves as the critical testing phase for active trading environments,” the subDAO wrote.

Once the dYdX Chain protocol is stable with minimal bugs or issues, its progression from active to full trading, including rewards, will be determined by a new board vote, it added – urging vigilance in monitoring the dYdX Chain before significant trading takes place.

From StarkEx to the Cosmos ecosystem

The alpha mainnet for dYdX version 4, along with the debut of the Cosmos-based blockchain, launched on October 26, marking a notable transition for the leading decentralized derivatives platform to become a standalone Layer 1 on Cosmos, having previously relied on Ethereum Layer. 2 scale solution StarkEx in version 3.

“After years of development, five testnets with more than 60 validators and leading trading firms, the dYdX Chain has been officially launched by the community and DAO,” Charles d’Haussy, CEO of the dYdX Foundation, told The Block at the time.

The dYdX platform ranks as the most comprehensive decentralized trading platform for crypto derivatives, with a cumulative volume of more than $1 trillion since 2020.