One of crypto’s top decentralized trading platforms is making a bet that the Trump administration’s friendlier stance toward digital assets has finally opened the door for sophisticated derivatives trading in the U.S.—and it’s willing to cut fees drastically to prove it.
DYdX, a San Francisco-based exchange that specializes in perpetual contracts and has processed over $1.5 trillion in total trading volume since launch, plans to enter the U.S. market by year-end with spot trading on Solana and other linked cryptocurrencies, President Eddie Zhang told Reuters in an interview published on Oct. 30.
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The move marks a significant shift for the platform, which has historically been unavailable to American traders due to regulatory uncertainty around crypto derivatives. Unlike centralized exchanges like Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) and Kraken that act as intermediaries between buyers and sellers, decentralized platforms like dYdX aim to eliminate the middleman entirely, allowing users to transact directly on blockchain networks.
The Fee War Begins
To sweeten its U.S. debut, dYdX plans to slash trading fees by as much as half across the board, bringing costs down to between 50 and 65 basis points, according to Zhang.
That aggressive pricing strategy signals just how badly major crypto platforms want access to American retail and institutional traders. The U.S. has long represented the holy grail for crypto exchanges—a massive pool of sophisticated investors who’ve been largely locked out of advanced trading products available to users in other jurisdictions.
“It’s very important for us as a platform to have something available in the United States, because I think it represents, hopefully, the direction we’re trying to move in,” Zhang told Reuters.
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What’s Still Off Limits—And What Could Change
Perpetual contracts, the derivatives product that made dYdX famous, won’t be available in the U.S. initially. These instruments let traders speculate on asset prices without actually owning them and, unlike traditional futures, don’t have expiration dates.
But that could change. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission indicated in a joint statement last month that they would consider allowing crypto perpetual contracts to trade across regulated platforms in the U.S.
Zhang told Reuters that dYdX is optimistic U.S. regulators will eventually provide guidance for decentralized platforms to offer those products.
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The Trump Effect on Crypto
DYdX’s move follows President Donald Trump’s embrace of the cryptocurrency sector this year, which has led to the dismissal of multiple lawsuits against prominent crypto platforms and a shift by financial regulators toward creating specialized rules to accommodate digital assets, Reuters reported.
That regulatory thaw has unleashed a wave of crypto companies either entering or expanding in the U.S. market. The question now is whether the infrastructure and regulatory framework can keep pace with the flood of new platforms seeking American users.
For dYdX, the stakes are enormous. The platform has built its reputation on offering sophisticated trading tools to experienced crypto traders globally. Successfully navigating U.S. regulations while maintaining that edge could position it as a major player in what remains the world’s largest and most liquid financial market.
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