Launch Incentive Program Season 3

Season 3 of the Launch Incentive Program is underway and Chaos Labs is excited to announce some iterations on the structure.

Building on the foundation of Seasons 1 and 2, Season 3 continues to offer separate allocations for trading, market-making, and performance-based rewards. There are also two new initiatives specifically tailored to implement insights gained from the past trading seasons.

First Deposit Bonus

Season 3 introduces a limited first deposit bonus of $100 for up to 1500 new accounts. Should more than 1500 new accounts begin trading in season 3, then the 1500 new accounts with the highest taker volume will receive bonuses. This should mitigate sybil accounts to some extent and target incentives at new traders that add the most value to the dYdX Chain over the season.

This is designed to maintain momentum in new trader acquisition through season 3. Although growth in new traders continued to be robust throughout season 2, the slowdowns in this segment over less volatile weeks could be an early sign that new traders could use a small extra push to bring their trading activity to the dYdX Chain.

In total, this initiative is allocated $150k.

Trading Streak Bonus

Traders earning at least 20 points each day for 7 days in a row will earn a $100 bonus for each distinct 7 day streak.

The purpose of adding bonuses to trading streaks is to lean into the stickiness of users once they become accustomed to trading on dYdX, as evidenced by the under 10% churn rates of users once they trade in 6 weeks or more. These users form the backbone of the dYdX Chain, and they should be incentivized accordingly.

It is not possible to accurately forecast the size required for this segment. Last season’s data indicated that this incentive would have traders earning approximately $30k had this been around, but the hope is to grow streaks significantly from there. The allocation for streaks will come out of the trading rewards allocation.

Incentives Summary

  • Trading rewards and trading streak bonus: $3 050 000
  • Trading leagues: $800 000
  • First deposit bonus: $150 000
  • Market making rewards: $1 000 000

Duration and Structure

Season 3 will follow a similar structure to season 2, spanning 6-8 weeks, concluding somewhere in the 10 day period between 3-13 April.

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Nice change. It can attract more retail users I believe

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Could you please elaborate on Trading leagues ($800k) and Market making rewards ($1m)?

Didn’t the trading leagues stop offering rewards on 1/31/2024?

Hello, im in a big disappointment about my position on leaderborads. I was in gold league in season 3, but now im checking it and it shows me in bronz league. How such a thing can happen?

I assume that they mistakenly entered new accounts into the major leagues, but they have now corrected them.

No, i was trading at season 2 and main weight of my assets are enough to be in the gold league.

But you weren’t in the same league in the second season? The start goes with bronze.

Nonsense, than would you mind how people could be able to reach the platinum league in season 3?

Plus i reached the support team of DYDX and they said newcomers next season league was determined by previous term’s average capital. Now i need to contact somebody from the rewards distrubitor third party Chaos Labs.

Season 3 League Tier Update

Following this discussion and other community feedback, we have conducted an analysis of the allocation of traders to trading leagues. This analysis highlighted how a few high-value traders were being assigned to lower leagues. For season 3 of the dYdX Chain Launch Incentive Program there will be a special promotion to allow traders that missed season 1 to participate in an appropriate league for their equity. This promotion will operate on top of previously communicated tier rules.

The updated league assignments can be found here.

Analysis

Trading leagues have been a popular addition to the dYdX Launch Incentive Program since their launch in Season 2. A distinct cohort of traders is motivated to focus on their trading performance on the dYdX Chain, creating long-term engaged users.

The intention of including separate leagues is engage a wide range of traders to compete for attractive rewards, individually sized to be both attractive, and inclusive. The promotion and relegation system adds a competitive element where ambitious traders can compete for larger prizes.

To maximize the impact of the leagues, it is important to allow newer, ambitious traders to compete for rewards appropriately sized for the risk they are taking, and the value they bring to the dYdX Chain. This is best measured by their total account equity.

For this reason, traders who missed out on competing in the leagues previously will be assigned to leagues according to their account equity at the start of season 3, 22 February 18h00 UTC. This is done according to the equity tiers currently in effect.

All traders who participated previously will be unaffected by this.

@chaoslabs I was wondering if there has been any consideration given to diversifying the distribution of rewards across different tiers of accounts. For instance, instead of allocating 25% of all rewards to a single account, we could distribute the rewards more equitably among various account tiers. For example, we might allocate 10% of the rewards to the top 5% of accounts, then distribute 20% of the rewards to the next 20% of accounts, another 20% to the following 20%, and 25% to the subsequent 25% of accounts, and so on. While the exact percentages could be adjusted, this is meant to illustrate the concept of a more tiered and balanced distribution strategy. What are your thoughts on this approach?

not sure about this idea its hard to create a fair distribution.
Althouh I think the accounts with 1M+ incentive points can be easily excluded from 7d streak bonuses. In my opinion these bonuses are not needed for professional players and should be oriented on retail users

this is dope! “Fools rush in, where angels fear to tread :D”

Yes I guess that will bring more users

@chaoslabs How are returns calculated? If I deposit funds and use leverage, returns are calculated on the deposited amount right? Not the notional amount? $100 deposit, uses 10x leverage makes $100 has a return of 100%?

Is there a detailed description on criteria to move leagues, cutoffs, return calc, etc?

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