Summary
KPK presents the dYdX Treasury SubDAO’s September Community Update, covering market developments, DYDX metrics and programme execution.
The accompanying KPK September Treasury Report provides the detailed treasury balances, allocations and strategy results for the month.
Market Update
Crypto markets extended their recovery in September despite a tighter macro backdrop, with the Federal Reserve raising rates and US market-structure legislation failing in the Senate. Prices fell mid-month around both events before recovering on renewed ETF demand and a run of US regulatory relief. DYDX outperformed the majors over the month.
Market Performance
BTC increased from approximately $77,241 on 1 September to $83,649 on 30 September, an 8.3% gain between the first and last daily observations. ETH rose from approximately $2,412 to $2,686, recording an 11.4% increase over the same period.
The macro backdrop tightened. On 16 September the Federal Reserve raised the target range for the federal funds rate by 25bp to 3.75-4.00%, its first increase since July 2023. BTC initially fell to about $75,600 after the decision, which followed the Senate’s failed 49-50 cloture vote on the CLARITY Act the previous day. VanEck associated the subsequent rebound with the SEC and CFTC exemptive relief and staff guidance that followed the vote. Of direct relevance to protocols that run buybacks, SEC staff stated on 25 September that announcing a buyback of a non-security crypto asset on a functional system with no central party would not, by itself, constitute a promise of essential managerial efforts.
Institutional Flows
US spot BTC ETFs attracted approximately $2.65B in net inflows, while US spot ETH ETFs received approximately $0.83B, based on the sum of Farside Investors’ daily data. Flows followed the macro calendar: BTC ETFs recorded approximately $746M of net outflows across 15 and 16 September, around the CLARITY vote and the FOMC decision, then approximately $2.39B of net inflows in the week of 21 to 25 September. ETH ETFs followed a similar pattern, with approximately $690M of net inflows in the same week.
Market Structure & Dominance
Binance Research’s October market insights reported that total crypto market capitalisation rose 11.0% to $2.99T in September. Gains broadened beyond BTC: among the top 10 assets, ZEC rose 65.9%, LINK 26.7% and SOL 19.1%, while VanEck reported that the MarketVector Digital Assets 100 Small-Cap Index rose 55%. BTC dominance remained elevated at around 58.3% on 28 September, pointing to rotation into selected altcoins rather than a broad altcoin season.
DYDX Token Update
DYDX outperformed major crypto assets in September. The token rose from approximately $0.11148 on 1 September to $0.14463 on 30 September, recording a 29.7% increase between the first and last daily observations. Over the same period, BTC gained 8.3%, ETH gained 11.4%, and HYPE gained 10.8%. DYDX’s daily series recorded a low of approximately $0.10460 on 16 September and a high of $0.14463 on 30 September, with most of the gain coming in the second half of the month.
Mintscan dYdX analytics shows that total platform volume on the dYdX perpetual venue was approximately $1.18B across 484,825 trades. Activity was led by ETH-USD, which generated approximately $716.5M in notional volume across 131,164 trades, accounting for 60.7% of total platform volume. SOL-USD ranked second with approximately $238.8M across 38,305 trades, representing 20.2% of activity, while BTC-USD was third at approximately $194.8M across 75,572 trades, equivalent to 16.5% of platform volume.
Outside the top three pairs, activity remained fragmented. XRP-USD generated approximately $6.4M, ZEC-USD recorded approximately $2.8M, TAO-USD recorded approximately $1.3M, and HYPE-USD recorded approximately $1.2M. The DYDX-USD market itself remained comparatively small, with approximately $88.0k in notional volume across 549 trades during the month.
Buyback Programme
Open-market activity acquired 1,080,989 DYDX at an average price of $0.11923, executed across 4,602 orders, for a total executed notional of 128,890.51 USDT. Execution recorded unfavourable slippage of approximately $356.68, alongside $128.89 in exchange fees, meaning aggregate execution was slightly worse than the recorded benchmark as the price rose through the second half of the month. Executed-notional-weighted participation stood at 3.052%.
No OTC transactions were executed during September; all recorded DYDX purchases were made through the open market.
Stable swaps converted 1,154,685 USDC into 1,155,102 USDT across 313 orders, at an average rate of 1.00036 USDT per USDC with no exchange fees. The swaps funded the Binance buyback account, where DYDX purchases are executed against USDT.
Staking Programme
The Treasury SubDAO held approximately 90.04M DYDX staked at month-end across the Staking address, Buyback address and Osmosis LP address. The staking strategy generated $4,970 in September yield.
On 8 September the Treasury SubDAO completed an ad hoc review of the Staking Programme, redelegating 10,204,150 DYDX across 17 transactions. The review was driven by validator availability: Figment wound down its dYdX operations, Imperator.co was jailed and left the active set, and Citadel.one’s legacy node was jailed and unbonded. Keplr’s delegation was also reduced to bring it in line with the other designated proposers. All movements were redelegations, so the stake kept earning throughout.
Later in the month, Proposal #396 passed on 17 September, reducing the active validator set from 31 to 21. Following the reduction, five validators holding Treasury SubDAO delegations of approximately 8.34M DYDX fell outside the active set and no longer earn rewards. This stake will be redeployed in the next staking review.
Asset Allocation
As of 30 September 2026, the Treasury SubDAO’s total funds stood at approximately $19.35M. The portfolio consists of:
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$13.38M in DYDX (69.17%).
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$3.52M in RWA (18.20%).
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$2.44M in stablecoins (12.63%).
Capital utilisation stood at 87.93%, with $17.01M allocated across DeFi positions and $2.33M held in wallet and exchange balances. The RWA sleeve consists of the $3.52M Ondo USDY position on Ethereum. By venue, approximately $14.13M was held on Cosmos dYdX (73.04%), $4.03M on Ethereum (20.82%) and $1.19M on Binance (6.14%).
Reporting scope change. From September, the treasury report includes the Treasury SubDAO’s Binance buyback account. It held approximately $1.19M at month-end (1.10M USDT and 627k DYDX). Until August, funds sent to Binance for buyback execution were recorded as an outflow and only re-entered the report when purchased DYDX was withdrawn. The increase in total funds from $15.50M at the end of August therefore reflects this scope change as well as the rise in the DYDX price, not new inflows.
Yield Generation
| Strategy | Month-end allocation | September yield | APY / annualised yield |
|---|---|---|---|
| dYdX Staking Programme | $12,983,084 | $4,970 | 0.47% annualised yield |
| Ondo USDY | $3,520,889 | $10,220 | 3.60% |
| kpk USDC Prime Core V2 (Morpho) | $507,450 | $5,098 | 4.98% |
| Total | $17,011,423 | $20,288 | - |
DeFi strategies generated $20,288 during September. Approximately $1.0M was withdrawn from kpk USDC Prime Core V2 on Morpho at the end of the month to fund the Binance buyback account, bringing the position to approximately $0.51M at month-end. The strategy generated $5,098 during the month, with a trailing-24-hour net APY of 4.98% at the last available observation on 30 September.
The Ondo USDY position generated $10,220 and continued to provide Treasury-backed yield alongside staking and stablecoin lending, supporting the diversification mandate approved in Proposal #372. Its month-end APY was 3.60%.
Staking yield of 0.47% annualised was lower than in August. Staking rewards are paid largely from protocol fees, which fell with platform volume, while the USD value of the staked position rose with the DYDX price.
Next Steps for October
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Buyback programme: continue DYDX purchases across approved execution channels, subject to mandate and market conditions.
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Staking programme: redeploy the stake held with validators that left the active set, together with idle DYDX in the Treasury wallets, as part of the next staking review.
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Yield diversification: monitor the USDY RWA sleeve and Morpho deployment, including yield, liquidity and risk exposure.