Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Author | Asher (@Asher_ 0210)
Early yesterday morning, Robinhood announced that its own Layer 2 network, Robinhood Chain, has officially launched its public mainnet. This chain is built on the Arbitrum technology stack, positioned as compliant with institutional standards, permissionless, AI-native, and specifically designed for real-world assets (RWA).
In other words, Robinhood aims not to add another chain to the crypto industry but to unify stocks, RWAs, lending, trading, and on-chain financial products within its own infrastructure.
As major platforms enter the scene, key players in the ecosystem quickly align.
Protocols such as Uniswap, 1inch, Lighter, Morpho, Chainlink, BitGo, Ethena, and EtherFi have all announced their integration with Robinhood Chain, covering various core sectors of cryptocurrencies including trading, liquidity, lending, oracle services, custody, and cross-chain functionalities.
Overview of Robinhood Chain ecosystem projects
In this grand ecological integration, the new DEX Arcus launched by the dYdX team has become a focal point of community discussions.
Community users are questioning: Is dYdX Labs shifting its focus to Arcus? Will the existing dYdX Chain be marginalized? Can the DYDX token continue to uphold protocol value in the future? How will Arcus and the dYdX ecosystem be related?
As a result of the controversies, DYDX has dropped over 12% in the past 24 hours, with a current market value reported at $108 million.
DYDX token's 7-day K-line chart
What is Arcus? 24/7 zero-fee trading of tokenized stocks
Arcus: A decentralized exchange developed by the dYdX team, now open for early waitlist
Arcus is a decentralized exchange developed by the dYdX team, now launched on Robinhood Chain, offering 24/7 zero-fee trading for 95 types of tokenized stocks and perpetual contracts. Arcus supports tokenized trading of stocks, commodities, indices, and crypto assets, with all tokenized stocks issued by Robinhood Chain and redeemable, capable of self-custody and connecting to the DeFi ecosystem.
Arcus x Robinhood: All-weather trading of stocks and perpetual contracts
Currently, Arcus has opened its early waitlist (link: https://waitlist.arcus.xyz/), and users can complete interactions by binding their personal X accounts and wallets.
Arcus has opened its early waitlist
Additionally, Arcus plans to support the use of tokenized stocks and crypto assets as collateral for perpetual contracts in the future, and provide pre-IPO trading for popular private companies like OpenAI.
In the future, Arcus tokens will be distributed to the dYdX community
At first glance, the DEX Arcus developed by the dYdX team closely follows the crypto trend this year—tokenized stocks. However, the issue is that Arcus is not deployed on dYdX Chain but chooses to operate on Robinhood Chain, advancing as an independent product with its own infrastructure. This means that dYdX Labs is telling a new growth story, but this story does not place dYdX Chain and DYDX tokens at its core.
Even more subtly, dYdX founder Antonio Juliano stated in dYdX's latest documentation that “a portion of Arcus tokens will be allocated to the dYdX community in the future.” This statement, while intended to reassure the old community, also amplifies the expectations of Arcus token issuance, prompting many users to pay more attention to new potential airdrop opportunities.
Arcus tokens will be allocated to the dYdX community
Considering that dYdX previously launched one of the largest airdrops in the industry, once Arcus initiates trading incentives, points activities, or early user plans, it is likely to attract some traders and liquidity to shift to the new platform ahead of time. For dYdX Chain, this means that the already pressured trading volume and activity may face further diversion.
dYdX founder responds: Arcus is a new product, dYdX Chain will not stop
In response to community doubts, dYdX founder Antonio Juliano explained in a statement that dYdX Chain had deeply pursued decentralization in the past, with open-source architecture, community governance, over 200 markets, and more than 50 validators running order books.
However, he also acknowledged that this path brought performance and user experience trade-offs. As competition in on-chain derivatives intensifies, the market is rewarding trading platforms that are faster, simpler, and have more concentrated liquidity; Arcus was born against this backdrop.
Furthermore, Antonio stated that Arcus will be led by Eddie Zhang as CEO and Founder, while he himself will join the board, responsible for strategy and long-term vision. In other words, Arcus is not a new feature on dYdX Chain; rather, it is a new trading platform pushed forward by dYdX Labs.
For the old community, Antonio stated that dYdX v4 will continue to be supported, and user funds and positions will still be accessible on dYdX Chain; if Arcus issues tokens in the future, a portion of the allocation will be reserved for the dYdX community, prioritizing users who have previously participated in dYdX trading, staking, validating, and community building.
Subsequently, the dYdX Foundation further emphasized that Arcus is an independent product built on independent infrastructure, and dYdX Chain will not be affected as a result. DYDX remains the governance and staking token of dYdX Chain, with its mechanisms, supply, and operational characteristics unchanged, and there are currently no plans for any token exchange or migration.
However, the market's concern is not just about whether “dYdX Chain can still be usable.”
The real question is, if Arcus generates trading volume and revenue in the future, can dYdX Chain share in that growth? If Arcus issues new tokens, how much of the benefits can DYDX holders receive? How will dYdX Labs allocate resources between Arcus and dYdX Chain going forward?
Until these questions regarding value assumptions are clarified, Arcus represents a new story for dYdX Labs, while for DYDX holders, it feels more like a problem waiting to be solved.
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