dYdX review
The most generous affiliate programme of the series, and the clearest case of a venue that lost the volume war: 78 active markets and $1.04B of 30-day volume, against $204B for Hyperliquid. The order book, the fee ladder and the payout mechanics are fully documented.
dydx.trade
Perpetual futures are leveraged: a small move against you can liquidate your position. Only trade what you can afford to lose.
- Trading fees
- 0.050% taker · 0.010% makerSeven tiers on 30-day trailing volume across all markets: 5.0/1.0 bps below $1M, 4.5/1.0 above $1M, 4.0/0.5 above $5M, 3.5/0 above $25M, 3.0/0 above $50M, 2.5/-0.7 above $100M and 2.5/-1.1 above $200M, so the largest makers are paid. Staking DYDX adds a further discount on net positive fees; maker rebates are excluded from that discount.
- New-user perk
- Referred users start at fee tier 3 instead of tier 1, worth up to $550 of fee savingsvia a referral link (not offered here yet)
- Max leverage
- up to 50×78 perp markets
- Identity check
- No KYC
- Custody
- Non-custodial, wallet signature
- Settles on
- dYdX Chain (Cosmos app-chain) · USDC
- Where it runs
- Web
- 30-day volume
- $1,037.0MDefiLlama protocol page, 28/09/2026, reported volume. DefiLlama publishes no normalized figure for dYdX, so the $1.04B cannot be compared to an organic-activity estimate. The trend is the point here: dYdX trades roughly 1/200th of Hyperliquid's 30-day volume.
Who it’s for
Pick it if
You publish content about perps: the 30% to 50% taker-fee share with instant USDC payouts is the best economics here.
Skip it if
You need deep liquidity for large clips, or you are publishing from the US, Canada or a restricted jurisdiction.
Strengths / Limits
Strengths
- Affiliate commissions of up to 50% of taker fees, paid in USDC every second, with no application form to fill in.
- Referred users get tier-3 pricing immediately, worth up to $550 of savings, which makes the link easier to sell.
- 78 active markets out of 296 listed, and a full fee ladder that turns maker fees negative for the largest makers.
- The protocol runs on its own Cosmos chain, with an open-source indexer and builder-code support for order routers.
Limits
- 30-day volume of about $1.04B is roughly 200 times smaller than Hyperliquid's, which limits how much a referral can earn.
- The front end itself reports that perps are unavailable in your region from some countries, and the affiliate programme excludes the US and Canada.
- Affiliate percentages are set by governance and can change, and payouts stop as soon as the referred user stops trading.
What it offers
- Order bookYes
- Cross marginYes
- Spot tradingNot documented
- Vaults / copy vaultsYes
- Copy tradingNot documented
- Stocks, gold or forexNo
- Points programNo
- APIYes
- Mobile appNot documented
- Telegram botNot documented
“Not documented” means we found no official page, not that the feature is missing.
How to start safely
- Open the official app
Type dydx.trade yourself or use a bookmark: phishing copies of perp exchanges are common.
- Deposit a small amount first
Send a test deposit of the collateral the exchange accepts, on the chain it documents, before moving more.
- Set leverage and a stop before the order
Pick isolated margin for a new trade, keep leverage low, and place the stop-loss with the order, not after.
- Watch funding and liquidation price
Funding is paid regularly while a position is open, and the liquidation price moves closer as leverage rises.
Security record
2023-11 — About $9M was lost on dYdX v3 when a position in the YFI market was manipulated through a thin book, long before the v4 chain migration. Source
2024-07 — The dYdX v3 front end was hijacked through a DNS attack; the loss was limited to about $31,000 and no protocol funds were touched. Source
Official domains: dydx.trade
Sources
Checked on 27 Sept 2026. Facts change quickly: re-check prices and fees in the app.
dYdX0.050% taker · 0.010% maker · dydx.trade
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