Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Author | Asher (@Asher_0210)
Yesterday morning, Robinhood announced the official launch of its own Layer 2 network, Robinhood Chain, to the public mainnet. This chain is built on the Arbitrum tech stack and is positioned as institutional-grade, permissionless, AI-native, and specifically designed for real-world assets (RWA).
In other words, Robinhood doesn't just want to add another chain to the crypto industry; it aims to consolidate stocks, RWAs, lending, trading, and on-chain financial products into its own infrastructure.
As a major platform enters the fray, key players in the ecosystem quickly take sides.
Leading protocols including Uniswap, 1inch, Lighter, Morpho, Chainlink, BitGo, Ethena, and EtherFi have successively announced integrations with Robinhood Chain, covering core crypto sectors such as trading, liquidity, lending, oracles, custody, and cross-chain interoperability.
Overview of Robinhood Chain Ecosystem Projects
Amid this wave of major ecosystem integrations, Arcus, a new DEX launched by the dYdX team, has surprisingly become the focal point of community discussion.
Community users have raised concerns: Is dYdX Labs shifting its focus to Arcus? Will the original dYdX Chain be marginalized? Can the DYDX token continue to capture protocol value in the future? And how will Arcus be associated with the dYdX ecosystem?
Influenced by these controversies, DYDX has fallen over 12% in the past 24 hours, with its current market capitalization temporarily reported at $108 million.
DYDX Token 7-Day Price Chart
What is Arcus? 7×24 Hour 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 live on Robinhood Chain, offering 7×24 hour zero-fee trading of 95 tokenized stocks and perpetual contracts. Arcus supports trading of tokenized stocks, commodities, indices, and crypto assets. All tokenized stocks are issued and redeemable on Robinhood Chain, can be self-custodied, and integrated into the DeFi ecosystem.
Arcus x Robinhood: 24/7 Trading of Stocks and Perpetuals
Currently, Arcus has opened its early waitlist (link: https://waitlist.arcus.xyz/). Users can complete interactions by connecting their personal X account and wallet.
Arcus Early Waitlist is Open
Furthermore, Arcus plans to support using tokenized stocks and crypto assets as collateral for perpetual contracts and to offer pre-IPO trading for hot private companies like OpenAI in the future.
Future Arcus Tokens Will Be Allocated to the dYdX Community
At first glance, Arcus, a DEX developed by the dYdX team, is capitalizing on a major crypto theme this year—tokenized stocks. However, the issue lies in the fact that Arcus is not deployed on the dYdX Chain; instead, it has chosen to run on Robinhood Chain and is being developed as an independent product with its own separate infrastructure. This suggests that dYdX Labs is crafting a new growth narrative, one that does not place the dYdX Chain and the DYDX token at its core.
What's more subtle is that 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 this statement aims to reassure the old community, it also directly amplifies expectations for an Arcus token launch, making many users pay more attention to new potential airdrop opportunities.
Arcus Tokens Will Be Allocated to the dYdX Community
Considering that dYdX once conducted one of the largest airdrops in the industry, if Arcus subsequently initiates trading incentives, point campaigns, or early user programs, it could potentially attract some traders and liquidity to migrate to the new platform ahead of time. For the dYdX Chain, this means that its already pressured trading volume and activity may face further diversion.
dYdX Founder Responds: Arcus is a New Product, dYdX Chain Will Not Be Shut Down
Facing community skepticism, dYdX founder Antonio Juliano posted an explanation, stating that the dYdX Chain has previously delved deeply into decentralization, featuring an open-source architecture, community governance, over 200 markets, and more than 50 validators running order books.
However, he also acknowledged that this path involved trade-offs in performance and user experience. As competition in on-chain derivatives intensifies, the market is rewarding faster, simpler, and more liquid trading platforms. Arcus was born in this context.
Additionally, 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 the dYdX Chain but a new trading platform being developed separately by dYdX Labs.
For the old community, Antonio stated that dYdX v4 will continue to be supported, and user funds and positions will remain accessible on the dYdX Chain; if Arcus issues tokens in the future, a portion will be reserved for the dYdX community, with priority given to users who have previously participated in dYdX trading, staking, validation, and community building.
Subsequently, the dYdX Foundation further emphasized that Arcus is an independent product built on independent infrastructure and that the dYdX Chain will not be affected. DYDX remains the governance and staking token for the dYdX Chain, with its mechanisms, supply, and operational characteristics unchanged, and there are currently no arrangements for token swaps or migrations.
However, market concerns are not merely about "whether the dYdX Chain can still be used."
The real question lies in: If Arcus generates significant trading volume and revenue in the future, can the dYdX Chain share in this growth? If Arcus issues a new token, how much value will DYDX holders receive? How will dYdX Labs allocate its future resources between Arcus and the dYdX Chain?
Until clear answers are provided to these questions about value capture, Arcus represents a new story for dYdX Labs, but for DYDX holders, it's more like a puzzle yet to be solved.
