30s Summary

Antonio Juliano, founder of DeFi platform dYdX, is focusing on encouraging everyday users to participate in crypto trading. The DeFi derivatives market is seeing daily trades amounting to around $10 billion and Juliano aims to increase this by including existing trading and newer asset classes on ‘crypto rails’. dYdX has added features including Instant Market Listings, which supports leveraged trading, and MegaVault, a high-performance automated market maker. Juliano emphasised how these features can create liquidity for all assets on dYdX and accommodate professional market makers with deep liquidity.

Full Article

Antonio Juliano, the guy behind dYdX, recently joined a Cointelegraph AMA where he chatted about returning to his baby (aka dYdX) and diving back into the whole startup hustle. He dropped some news on new stuff you can do with dYdX Unlimited, and shared some thoughts on how onchain derivatives markets could grow.

After stepping back from dYdX in spring 2024, Juliano did some soul-searching. “I realised the company was getting too comfortable and it was my fault. The crypto world is all about looking at what’s happening right now, and I’d created something with dYdX that was built to last, but innovating and tweaking is tough in a big company. So we’re back with the startup vibe,” he explained.

Returning to the driver’s seat, he’s keen to switch up the crypto trading scene: “What’s the ideal form of derivatives trading? Is it high stakes? Just for pro traders? Or can we get everyday folk involved too? We’re only just starting to imagine the possibilities.”

Right now, the DeFi derivatives market is hitting up to $10 billion daily trades and centralised exchanges bagging around $100 billion. Juliano reckons that’s just the start: “Crypto’s mint at creating new asset classes, but we need to get more existing ones trading on crypto rails. When that happens, we’re going to see a major leap in volumes.”

He connected recent retail growth with new crypto products that attract average users: “NFTs, ICOs and DeFi did it before, now it’s memecoins. It’s great how easy it is – just download an app and get started. But, we need a blend of everyday and pro users and dYdX wants to link them up.”

Building on these trends, dYdX has had a major refresh complete with a new features package, dYdX Unlimited. High on the list was Instant Market Listings which lets you get stuck into leveraged trading through perpetuals. “Just list your coin, make it easy to trade, then get it on dYdX so the amateurs can start playing,” Juliano explained.

Another shiny new feature is MegaVault, a high-performance automated market maker (AMM) for the DeFi crypto world. If you’ve got USDC to invest, you can earn a tidy income from the master liquidity pool.

“MegaVault gives virtually every asset on dYdX some liquidity. It works well with instant listings – deposit in MegaVault to list a new asset, then it starts quoting. And anyone can become a liquidity provider with a single click, earning APR based on the market’s performance,” said Juliano.

He stressed that dYdX now has the full package on offer: “You can list instantly, use an automated market maker, and professional market makers can furnish us with deeper liquidity and tighter spreads. We never factored in derivatives from newly created markets before.”