dYdX, which was founded in 2018, is currently the largest decentralised derivatives exchange, with a trading volume of over $600 million in the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data. Currently, the exchange runs on StarkEx, an Ethereum Layer 2 scaling network created by Starkware.
dYdX Trading, the development team behind dYdX, announced plans to spin up its own chain using the Cosmos SDK on Wednesday. This is a software development kit used by Cosmos ecosystem projects.
“Developing a decentralized, off-chain order book and matching engine and moving from Ethereum to a dYdX-specific chain as a major DeFi protocol is very much untested, but we believe it gives the dYdX ecosystem the best shot at having a network that could offer a long term competitive product experience with centralized exchanges,” said dYdX founder Antonio Juliano.
According to the announcement, dYdX’s new chain will help make the project more decentralised and will be controlled by a distributed set of validators rather than the founding team alone. Juliano added that it is expected to launch in the coming months.
When asked about plans for dYdX’s existing version on StarkEx, a dYdX spokesperson said that no decision has been made: “We are still considering what will happen with the existing V3 system built on Starkware.”