Arcus and dYdX: How They Are Connected (and What It Means for DYDX Holders)

dYdX

Arcus is built by dYdX Labs, the company where the team that built dYdX works. That one sentence causes most of the confusion. "dYdX" is not a single thing: it is a US company, a separate foundation, a Cosmos blockchain that DYDX holders govern, a token, and a website run by yet another entity. Arcus comes from the company. The chain, the foundation and the token are on the other side of the line.

This guide sorts out who is who, quotes what each side actually said on launch day, and covers what it means if you hold DYDX or traded on dYdX. If you just want the product overview, start with what is Arcus.

Which "dYdX" are we talking about?

The company name comes straight from dYdX's own footer, which refers to "dYdX Trading Inc. dba dYdX Labs ('dYdX Labs')." The same footer notes that dYdX International Ltd and dYdX Labs "do not develop, control or participate in the operation of any component of the dYdX protocol for public use." In other words, dYdX Chain is run by its validators and governance, not by the company that now builds Arcus.

Arcus has its own legal entities too: Arcus Labs Ltd in the Cayman Islands issues the Protocol Terms, and Pocket Protector Labs Inc. operates the web interface. Robinhood Crypto is a strategic investor, not an owner.

What dYdX Labs said: "A New Arc"

On June 30, 2026, dYdX founder Antonio Juliano published "A New Arc" on the dYdX blog. The key lines, quoted directly:

• "Arcus is a next-generation decentralized exchange built jointly by dYdX Labs and Robinhood Crypto."
• "We're launching Arcus with Eddie as CEO and Founder. Arcus was incubated at dYdX Labs and I'll be joining the board where I'll drive strategy and long-term vision."
• "An allocation of any future Arcus token will be reserved for the dYdX community."
• "I am dYdX's founder and the largest DYDX token holder. I have more riding on this than anyone."
• "dYdX v4 will continue to be supported and your funds and positions will remain fully accessible on dYdX Chain."

Juliano also explained the shift. dYdX Chain "achieved real decentralization," he wrote, but "Performance and user experience suffered. The market clearly responded, with competitors capturing market share by prioritizing speed, simplicity, and liquidity." He promised to prioritize Arcus access for people who participated in dYdX by trading, staking, validating and engaging.

Source: dYdX, used under fair use for educational purposes

Eddie Zhang's own welcome post adds the history: dYdX Labs acquired his startup, Pocket Protector, "exactly a year ago today," and he stepped into "the role of CEO of dYdX Labs and Founder of Arcus." Arcus's FAQ puts it in one line: "Arcus is the next chapter for the team that built dYdX. dYdX Chain continues to operate."

What the dYdX Foundation said

The dYdX Foundation published "dYdX Chain: Community Owned, Unchanged" on July 1, 2026, and reposted it on the dYdX governance forum on July 3. Its main points:

• "dYdX Trading Inc. (d.b.a. dYdX Labs) announced Arcus... Arcus is a distinct, independent product built on separate infrastructure; dYdX Chain is not affected by it in any way."
• Trading, deposits, withdrawals, staking, governance and validator operations "continue to run as normal," and the community-run indexer, dydx.trade front end and mobile apps "remain in service."
• "DYDX is, and remains, the governance and staking token of dYdX Chain. Its mechanics, supply, and operational characteristics remain unchanged."
• "No token swap or migration has been announced; any such decision would belong to dYdX Labs and to DYDX token holders and governance participants."
• The Community Treasury and Rewards Treasury "remain under dYdX Chain governance control."

Source: dYdX Foundation, used under fair use for educational purposes

Not everyone on the forum accepted that framing. One validator replied that the statement on staking rewards "is not accurate," arguing that fee holidays had meant no staking rewards for validators or stakers, and another user's whole reply was "He took our X account." Those are forum opinions, not facts I can verify, but they show the mood among some dYdX Chain participants.

Is Arcus a dYdX v4 fork? No

Arcus is often described as "dYdX on Robinhood Chain." Technically it is closer to dYdX's older v3 design than to v4. Arcus's Help Center says so directly: "It's the same hybrid model dYdX v3 ran on StarkEx."

Arcus does not run on dYdX Chain, does not use the dYdX v4 indexer API and does not use DYDX in the product. Its collateral is USDG. The Arcus vs dYdX Chain comparison goes through fees, depth and volume between the two venues.

What it means for DYDX holders and dYdX traders

1. The token line, read carefully

"An allocation of any future Arcus token will be reserved for the dYdX community." That is the entire official commitment. Note what it does not say:

• It does not say an Arcus token will launch. "Any future" is conditional.
• It does not define "the dYdX community." DYDX holders, stakers, traders, validators? Unstated.
• It gives no size, date, snapshot or claim process.
• It comes from dYdX's blog, not from Arcus's terms. Arcus's Help Center says, "No, Arcus does not currently have a token."

Arcus's points program does not change this. Annex C of the Protocol Terms says points do not convey any entitlement to a token generation event or airdrop. Any page telling you an Arcus airdrop for DYDX holders is "confirmed" is going beyond the sources.

2. Access priority

Juliano promised to prioritize Arcus access for dYdX participants. In practice, the Arcus perps waitlist (July to September 2026) ranked wallets by prior perps history, and Arcus's waitlist post named "dYdX v3, dYdX v4, Hyperliquid, Lighter" as the venues it read. Arcus spot volume was added later.

Since October 1, 2026, new perps access runs on invite codes: one single-use code per $1 million of qualifying Arcus perps volume. Your dYdX history mattered for the waitlist; it does not earn invite codes.

3. Your DYDX and your dYdX Chain positions

Per both dYdX's post and the Foundation statement, dYdX Chain keeps running, funds and positions stay accessible, and DYDX's supply and mechanics are unchanged. No swap or migration to anything Arcus-related has been announced. Arcus lists DYDX only as a perp market, DYDX-USD, with 5x maximum leverage (live markets API, October 2, 2026).

How the market reacted

Price coverage on launch day disagreed on the numbers, which usually means different time windows. Cryptopolitan and KuCoin News reported that DYDX fell about 23% in the 24 hours after the announcement, with Cryptopolitan putting the price near $0.138. AMBCrypto described a 45% drop after traders had pushed DYDX up ahead of the news. Treat both as reported figures from third parties, measured over different periods.

On the venue side, DefiLlama data from October 2, 2026 shows Arcus with about 3.4 times dYdX v4's 30-day perps volume ($4.11 billion vs $1.21 billion) and similar open interest (about $44 million each).

The X account confusion

If you followed @dYdX on X before July 2026, you now follow Arcus. The account at @arcus_xyz carries an X join date of September 2017, long before Arcus existed, with roughly 379,000 followers and the bio "Built by the team behind dYdX in partnership with @RobinhoodCrypto." That is the account dYdX used for years, renamed. The handle @dYdX now belongs to a different account that joined X in March 2022 and had about 6,000 followers on October 2, 2026. Old dYdX posts therefore show under the Arcus name.

That handover is fertile ground for impersonators. MetaMask's phishing blocklist already includes Arcus-themed domains such as dydx-arcus.com, fake waitlist sites and fake "TGE" claim pages. Arcus's official domains are arcus.xyz and its subdomains (app., docs., help., waitlist.). The full list of fakes and how to check a link is in Arcus scams and fake sites.

Should a dYdX trader try Arcus?

If you traded crypto perps on dYdX, the main reasons to look at Arcus are a lower beta taker fee (0.0225% at the base tier against 0.050% on dYdX v4), about 3.4 times dYdX's BTC depth within 0.1% of the mid in our October 2 snapshot, and markets dYdX does not have: Stock Token spot and equity, index and commodity-ETF perps. The trade-offs are an operator-run matching engine and a permissioned validator set instead of dYdX Chain's public validators, gated perps access, and no governance token. Arcus also excludes the US, Canada and the UK; dYdX Chain perps are not available to US persons either.

To try it, open app.arcus.xyz. Spot works right away in eligible regions; perps need an invite code. Arcus gives referred users 5% off trading fees, and our code is ARCUSGUIDE (ArcusGuide earns a share of fees from referred traders). The referral code guide explains the timing rule: the code only attaches early, before your 30-day volume nears $1 million.