The dYdX Surge Program will distribute up to $20 million in DYDX rewards to traders over the next nine months, based on their points score. This initiative aims to drive user engagement and increase activity on dYdX.
The Trading Competition launched on April 1, 2025, and will operate in monthly seasons aligned with the calendar months and subject to dYdX governance approval.
Rewards Allocations
The Competition will have three reward categories, designed to ensure the rewards reach a wide range of users efficiently.
The allocations to earn points will be:
- 50% General: Trading fee-based reward points, targeted at increasing activity as efficiently as possible.
- 25% Retail: Reserved for activity through one of the web or mobile user interfaces.
- 25% Activation: Feature launches, hot markets, v3 trader reactivation, staking boost, etc.
Chaos Labs has created a leaderboard here that offers full transparency into reward points and trader rankings.
For the first 6 months of the dYdX Surge Program, we are targeting 50% of incentives for the General segment, and 25% for each of the Retail and Activation segments.
Assume two users trade the equivalent amount of taker volume - one trader via API (Trader A) and the other on the mobile app (Trader B). Given the extra points for the retail bucket, Trader B will earn 3X more rewards on that given trade! This can increase by up to 10X if Trader B is a dYdX v3 trader, stakes sufficient DYDX, and trades in a hot market!
In the final three seasons of this term of the Surge Program, a portion of the reward budget is allocated to support maker activity once again. At this stage, further deepening of liquidity is expected to become a priority as trading activity continues to grow.
As we have done throughout the program to date, the outcome of the specific program design will be closely monitored. Where any alterations become necessary, they will be reflected in the program going forward.
How to Earn Rewards
- General:
- Executing trades via taker orders on dYdX (50% of the rewards budget)
- Retail:
- Executing taker orders through one of the web or mobile interfaces (25% of the rewards budget)
- Current Activation (25% of the rewards budget):
- Extra points for staking DYDX to a dYdX Chain validator from a trading wallet. More staked DYDX = more points
- *Extra points for users who traded on dYdX v3 and use the same Ethereum wallet to connect to dYdX Chain.
- Extra points for users who traded in the first 90 days after dYdX Chain was launched
- Future Activation:
- Extra points for trading in specific markets announced by Chaos Labs
- Extra points for feature launches announced by Chaos Labs
Examples of How Traders Benefit from the Surge Rewards Program
A trader with $1000 of margin that opens and closes a 5x long position on DOGE-USD from their phone 5 times in a month and a 2x short position on PEPE-USD from their laptop 3 times can expect to earn approximately $98 in DYDX rewards at the end of the season.
If the user falls into any of the following categories, their DYDX rewards could increase to as much as $170:
- Is a returning user from dYdX v3 and uses the same Ethereum wallet to connect to dYdX Chain.
- Is a returning user from the first 90 days of dYdX Chain
- Trade in one of the boosted markets to be announced by Chaos Labs
- Use a new feature to be announced by Chaos Labs
The examples above are estimates using behavioral data from previous seasons and results could vary going forward.