By Hannah Lang
(Reuters) -One of the top decentralized cryptocurrency trading platforms, dYdX, is preparing to enter the U.S. market by the end of the year, in a shift for the derivatives-focused exchange that was previously not available to American users, the president of dYdX told Reuters in an interview.
Unlike centralized exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken that act as the intermediary between buyers and sellers, decentralized platforms like dYdX aim to cut out the middleman and allow users to transact directly on a blockchain network, which powers cryptocurrencies.
DYdX specializes in perpetual contracts, a type of derivative that lets traders speculate on the price of an asset without actually owning it, and unlike traditional futures, does not have an expiration date. It recently surpassed $1.5 trillion in total trading volume since its inception, the San Francisco-based company said.
The platform plans to add to its offerings, bringing spot trading on solana and other linked cryptocurrencies to the U.S. by the end of the year, said Eddie Zhang, the president of dYdX.
“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 said.
DYdX’s move follows President Donald Trump’s embrace of the cryptocurrency sector this year, which has led to the dismissal of a spate of lawsuits against prominent crypto platforms and a shift by financial regulators to create specialized rules to accommodate digital assets.
Upon entering the U.S., dYdX plans to slash its trading fees by as much as half “across the board,” to between 50 and 65 basis points, Zhang said.
Perpetual contracts will not be available in the U.S., but dYdX hopes U.S. regulators will eventually provide guidance for decentralized platforms to be able to offer those products, Zhang said.
In a joint statement last month by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the agencies indicated they would consider allowing crypto perpetual contracts to trade across regulated platforms in the U.S.
(Reporting by Hannah Lang in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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