Arcus DEX Emerges from dYdX Partnership with Robinhood Blockchain
dYdX protocol undergoes transformation to become Arcus, migrating to Robinhood's blockchain infrastructure to offer perpetual futures and tokenized equity trading services.
Robinhood has formed a strategic alliance with the organization operating the dYdX decentralized exchange (DEX), resulting in a complete rebrand and the introduction of the protocol under the name Arcus on the Robinhood Chain network.
A social media account on X for Arcus announced on Wednesday that the transformation of "dYdX is now Arcus" had been completed and the platform would operate on the Robinhood Chain, which is Robinhood's layer 2 blockchain built on Arbitrum that became operational on the same day.
According to the dYdX Foundation's statement, dYdX Labs developed Arcus "in partnership with Robinhood" while clarifying that the dYdX blockchain "is not affected by it in any way." The new platform aims to become the blockchain's "leading DEX" and will provide users with access to perpetual trading products along with zero-fee trading on 95 tokenized stock offerings.
This DEX represents a component of Robinhood's broader strategic initiative to expand into tokenized asset offerings and perpetual trading products, both of which are crypto market segments that have experienced tremendous growth in popularity recently, particularly as United States regulatory authorities have demonstrated openness toward enabling these products to reach the market with greater ease.
The move by Robinhood to adopt perpetual trading capabilities arrives as the company seeks to attract traders who have migrated to Hyperliquid, the crypto perpetual futures trading platform whose native token has surged by nearly 150% throughout this year while successfully capturing significant market share.
Arcus to offer tokenized stock, perps trading
"Until now, traders have been shut out of the most valuable markets on earth — US equities, commodities, and indices — because of where they live, market hours, and institutions restricting access," Arcus said in a blog post. "We built Arcus to reduce these barriers."
According to the protocol's announcement, Arcus will provide both perpetuals and tokenized stock trading capabilities scheduled to become operational this month, enabling tokenized stocks to serve as collateral for perpetual contracts while also providing entry to pre-IPO trading markets.
The announcement further revealed that Robinhood Crypto, which serves as the company's cryptocurrency technology division, has made a financial investment in Arcus, though specific details regarding the investment were not made public.
In its statement, the dYdX Foundation emphasized that Arcus "is a distinct, independent product built on separate infrastructure" while assuring that the dYdX blockchain would remain operational and continue to be governed by its community members.
Trading platforms that focus on retail customers have been actively working to broaden their service offerings in order to maintain their competitive edge in the market. Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has pursued ambitions to compete with Robinhood and establish itself as a comprehensive trading platform, having introduced access to thousands of stock listings earlier this year.
The launch of Robinhood's blockchain network mirrors a comparable strategic decision made by Coinbase in 2023, when that company introduced Base, its Ethereum layer-2 blockchain solution that has expanded to become the fifth-largest network measured by value locked, based on data from DeFiLlama.
In related developments, Bitget Wallet, which is the self-custodial wallet solution from the Bitget cryptocurrency exchange, announced on Wednesday that it has established a partnership with Robinhood Crypto to incorporate the company's blockchain network, thereby enabling its user base to engage in tokenized stock trading.
Additionally, the decentralized exchange platform 1inch revealed on Wednesday that it would be positioned among the first major swap platforms to provide support for Robinhood Chain's network.