KPK is pleased to present the dYdX Treasury SubDAO’s April Community Update, which outlines recent developments, market conditions, DYDX metrics, and programme execution.
This update is accompanied by KPK’s April Treasury Report, which provides a detailed review of treasury performance and strategy.
Market Update
April was a recovery month for digital asset markets, with Bitcoin staging its strongest monthly gain of 2026 amid a return of institutional ETF demand and improving risk appetite. The broader market moved in sympathy, though the month was not without disruption. The Kelp DAO rsETH exploit, on 18 April injected a sharp episode of DeFi-specific volatility that tested protocol resilience and liquidity across ETH-denominated lending markets.
Market Performance
BTC opened April at approximately $68,100, consolidating near the lower end of its recent range before breaking higher from mid-month. A sustained rally through the second and third weeks pushed spot prices to a monthly high of approximately $79,200 on 27 April. BTC closed April at approximately $76,100, up approximately 11.7% month on month, its strongest monthly performance since April 2025, when it rose over 14%.
The move higher was supported by a meaningful reacceleration in spot ETF inflows and improving risk sentiment as macro conditions stabilised. Some late-month profit-taking introduced a modest retracement into the final sessions, but BTC held well above $75,000 through the close.
ETH underperformed BTC over the course of the month, closing April at approximately $2,259, up approximately 7.4% month on month. ETH had traded as high as approximately $2,464 on 17 April before the Kelp DAO rsETH exploit on 18 April triggered a sharp reversal. The incident, in which 116,500 unbacked rsETH were minted via a forged LayerZero bridge message and used as collateral across Aave; prompted Aave to freeze rsETH and WETH markets within hours, driving a liquidity crunch in ETH-denominated lending pools, elevated borrow rates, and forced position unwinds across several protocols. (Have a look at KPK’s actions in this incident) ETH fell from approximately $2,422 to approximately $2,269 in the two sessions following the exploit before recovering through late April. The intra-month high-to-close gap weighed on ETH’s relative performance versus BTC.
Across the broader market, altcoins and longer-tail assets broadly tracked the majors through the recovery. The rsETH contagion introduced temporary but acute stress in liquid restaking and Aave-adjacent positions, with DeFi tokens exposed to the freeze experiencing intraday drawdowns before stabilising as the coordinated DeFi United coalition recovery plan gained visibility later in the month.
Institutional Flows
ETF flows strengthened materially in April. US Bitcoin spot ETFs recorded net inflows of approximately $2bn for the month (the strongest monthly figure of 2026), reversing the net outflows that had weighed on the category in January and February. BlackRock’s IBIT was the primary driver, responsible for the bulk of monthly net capital. Morgan Stanley’s newly launched MSBT, which began trading on 8 April, contributed approximately $194m in inflows with no daily outflow sessions recorded during the month. Grayscale’s GBTC remained a drag, logging approximately $280m in net outflows as rotation into lower-cost vehicles continued. Cumulative US Bitcoin ETF net inflows since the January 2024 launch reached approximately $58.5bn by month-end.
ETH spot ETFs recorded their first monthly net inflow since October 2025, at approximately $356m. While the category remains in negative territory year to date (approximately $413m in net outflows for 2026), April’s reversal suggests some tentative return of institutional appetite for ETH-denominated exposure.
Market Structure & Dominance
Bitcoin dominance held in the high-50s percentage range through April, ending the month at approximately 58–60%. The sustained elevated dominance reflected the continued structural preference for BTC in institutional flows, reinforced in the short term by the rsETH-driven risk-off episode on 18 April, which temporarily accelerated rotation away from DeFi-adjacent exposures.
Total digital asset market capitalisation closed April l at approximately $2.6–2.7tn. The recovery in market cap was consistent with BTC’s approximately 12% monthly gain and broad-based participation across major assets, despite the mid-month volatility driven by the rsETH incident.
DYDX Token Update
DYDX materially outperformed the broader benchmark basket in April. The token opened the month at approximately $0.101 and closed at approximately $0.155, delivering a 53.8% monthly return. Over the same period, BTC returned 11.1%, HYPE returned 9.2%, and ETH returned 7.1%. DYDX traded down to an intra-month low of approximately $0.091 on 13 April before rallying into a month-end close near the top of its monthly range, with the local high of approximately $0.164 reached on 25 April.
Trading activity activity on the dYdX perpetual venue remained concentrated in the major pairs during April. BTC-USD generated approximately $2.64B in notional volume across 801.2k trades, accounting for 66.1% of total platform volume. ETH-USD ranked second with approximately $887.0M in notional volume across 191.5k trades, representing 22.2% of total activity. SOL-USD remained the third most active market at approximately $371.5M across 104.5k trades, equivalent to 9.3% of platform volume.
Outside the top three pairs, activity was fragmented. XRP-USD generated approximately $24.2M across 10.2k trades, while PAXG-USD recorded approximately $5.3M across 7.3k trades. The DYDX-USD market itself remained comparatively small, with approximately $109.4k in notional volume across 3.0k trades during the month, underscoring that venue activity continues to be driven primarily by BTC, ETH, and SOL.
Buyback Programme — April Update
Open-market activity acquired 1,604,844 DYDX at an average price of $0.10660, executed across 4,099 orders, for a total outlay of 171,073 USDC. Execution generated positive slippage of approximately $1,180.37, alongside $171.07 in exchange fees, indicating that aggregate execution was better than the benchmark price used for slippage measurement.
No OTC transactions were executed during April, with all DYDX buyback activity conducted through open-market purchases. Tokens were periodically transferred to the Treasury SubDAO buyback account. All buyback activity remains visible through the community-maintained Buyback Dashboard.
Staking Programme
An ad hoc staking rebalance was executed during April in response to validator-set changes and ongoing performance monitoring. Positions were rotated away from Informal Systems, Cosmic Validator, coinhall.org, OWALLET, and Lavender.Five Nodes, with stake reallocated across active operators including CryptoCrew X Defi Dojo, Keplr, Crosnest, Kiln, Enigma, and PRO Delegators. The objective remains unchanged: maintain strong uptime, preserve diversification across the active validator set, and keep dYdX productively deployed at all times.
Asset Allocation
As of 30 April 2026, the Treasury SubDAO’s total funds stood at approximately $19.05M. The portfolio currently consists of:
- 86.91 M DYDX (69.03%)
- 5.87 M USDC (30.97%)
Yield Generation
Staking Programme: $ 10,393 USDC generated by the Staking Programme.
Token Allocation %
Other Updates
Following the approval of Proposal #372, the Treasury SubDAO will proceed in accordance with the mandate defined by the governance vote. The Treasury SubDAO is actively sourcing venues for deploying the allocated capital, and we will provide an update once we execute the associated strategies, in accordance with the approved framework.
Next Steps for May
- Buyback programme: continue DYDX purchases across CEX and OTC channels
- Continuous review of the Staking programme, ensuring the active set of validators is supported by the community rather than primarily by the Treasury SubDAO’s current delegations.
- Stablecoin deployment strategies