DYDX Rallies 18% After Derivatives Exchange Delays Token Release

DYDX, the native token of the decentralized perpetuals exchange dYdX, soared 18% after the dYdX Foundation announced it will delay a scheduled unlock of 130M tokens worth around $300M by ten months.

On Thursday, dYdX published a blog post announcing that the 130M DYDX tokens earmarked for “investors, employees, and consultants” scheduled to unlock on Feb. 3 will now enter circulation on Dec. 1 instead.

61% Jump

“Various founders, employees, advisors, and consultants of dYdX Trading Inc. and dYdX Foundation are also subject to the transfer restriction schedule,” the dYdX team tweeted.

DYDX has jumped 61% in the last seven days compared to a 5.8% uptick in ETH, according to CoinGecko data.

DYDX/USDT, 24-hr chart. Source: CoinGecko.

The news comes after dYdX’s unlock schedule became the subject of significant public scrutiny. With around 147M dYdX tokens currently in circulation, dYdX’s supply was set to increase by 88% in one week’s time. Including the unlock, the supply of DYDX was on track to increase by more than 200% in 2023.

Surging

Some analysts believe the token’s price may be rising predominantly as a result of investors who shorted the asset closing out their positions.

The unlock will now begin from Dec. 1, when an initial 30% tranche of the DYDX enters circulation. A 40% tranche will unlock from Jan. 1 until June 1 next year, followed by a 20% tranche from July 2024 until June 2025. The remaining tokens will be released from July 2025 until June 2026.

What Is dYdX?

A Step-by-Step Guide to the Leading Decentralized Exchange

The Defiant

The project issued the DYDX governance token in August 2021, with 1B tokens initially minted and scheduled for release over five years.

The team allocated half of the initial supply to reward the protocol’s users, followed by a 27.7% allocation for dYdX investors, and 15.3% of tokens earmarked for the project’s founders and team. The remaining 7% of supply was set aside for future dYdX employees and team members.

DYdX is among the top decentralized exchanges by volume, driving $1.37B in 24-hour activity across 37 different pairings, according to Nomics.