$20M In Prizes For DeFi Trading

For a very long time, decentralized buying and selling felt difficult and unclear for many customers. But over the past market cycle, on-chain buying and selling platforms have change into extremely liquid, user-friendly, and geared up with all of the important instruments merchants count on. This shift is clearly mirrored within the rising variety of customers transferring from CEXs to DEXs.

One of the main examples is dYdX — a decentralized alternate with over $1.5 trillion buying and selling quantity, that not solely matches CEX-level comfort but additionally goes additional with initiatives just like the Surge Program, which has launched with $20M in prizes for its merchants. In this overview, you’ll be taught concerning the core particulars of the occasion and easy methods to take part.

What is the dYdX Surge Program?

The dYdX Surge Program is a large buying and selling competitors with a $20 million prize pool, launched by dYdX in collaboration with Chaos Labs in April 2025. This is a long-term marketing campaign operating over 9 months and structured as a seasonal competitors — with every season lasting one month.

Each season, merchants earn factors for utilizing the dYdX alternate, with a major give attention to perpetual futures buying and selling (each commerce counts). A key element is that rewards usually are not primarily based on PnL or ROI, however quite on taker buying and selling quantity and costs paid — making this system accessible to a wider viewers, not simply skilled merchants.

For instance, the primary two seasons are already full. In Season 1 alone, 2,806 merchants shared 2.26 million DYDX tokens (~$1.43M), with 627 merchants incomes over $100 every, and the highest dealer receiving $184,550. In Season 2, dYdX merchants acquired over $1.44 million in payouts.

Reward Mechanics: How the $20M Is Distributed

The general prize pool of dYdX Surge is as much as $20 million in DYDX, the native token of the dYdX ecosystem, which is used to reward merchants and performs a key position in staking, safety, and governance on the dYdX Chain.

As talked about above, the complete occasion is split into 9 month-to-month seasons, throughout which dYdX customers earn factors and compete on a clear, real-time leaderboard managed by Chaos Labs. At the tip of every season, as much as $2.2 million in rewards is distributed amongst contributors.

What standards decide how factors are earned in dYdX Surge? While reward allocation might barely differ from season to season to enhance the general steadiness and equity of this system, the core logic stays constant. Below is the present reward allocation together with the point-earning standards for the continuing third season.

General prize allocation — 45%

Points are distributed primarily based on buying and selling charges paid by customers as takers (executing market orders). Additionally, there are boosted markets — buying and selling pairs for which merchants earn factors at twice the speed of standard markets. The boosted tokens might change every season; for the present season, they’re: 

There can be a day by day buying and selling exercise bonus: each buying and selling day provides +1.67% of the bottom General reward (to be eligible, at the very least $1 in charges should be paid that day).

Retail prize allocation — 40%

Points on this allocation are awarded for taker exercise on dYdX (market orders) executed through the official dYdX internet or cellular interfaces. Unlike the General allocation, factors listed here are earned primarily based on buying and selling quantity, not on charges paid.

Activation prize allocation — 15%

Participants can earn further factors by growing their stDYDX steadiness throughout the Surge season in comparison with the earlier season.

stDYDX is a token you obtain whenever you stake your DYDX tokens to a dYdX Chain validator from the identical pockets you employ for buying and selling. The key requirement is that your present stDYDX steadiness should be larger than it was within the earlier season.

Key Details of the Surge Program 

The Role of the Surge Program within the dYdX Ecosystem

dYdX Surge is without doubt one of the most main  and longest-running incentive campaigns in decentralized buying and selling. Unlike many applications, it doesn’t take PnL or ROI under consideration when calculating factors, making it extra accessible to all forms of merchants. Surge additionally stands out with its versatile and community-governed reward construction, specializing in precise platform utilization, rewarding lively customers, and supporting sustainable progress.

Another key benefit is full decentralization — there’s no have to register, full KYC, or manually declare rewards. Traders merely use a non-custodial pockets to take part. Rewards are distributed mechanically on the finish of every season. The system is absolutely clear, with a publicly up to date leaderboard maintained by Chaos Labs.

How to Participate within the dYdX Surge Program

Go to dYdX.commerce and join your pockets. After signing a transaction, a dYdX Chain deal with might be mechanically created and linked to your pockets.

Make a deposit utilizing any supported token and community. One of the most typical and handy choices is USDC.

Go to the ‘Trade’ tab, select a buying and selling pair, and begin buying and selling. For every taker commerce, you’ll earn factors within the dYdX Surge Program primarily based in your buying and selling quantity and costs paid.

Boost your factors by:

Trading boosted markets (AIXBT, KAITO, SUI, XRP)

Trading day by day to activate the day by day bonus

Staking DYDX below the ‘DYDX’ tab to earn extra staking factors

Track your factors. Once you’ve made a commerce you possibly can observe your earned factors in a number of methods:

About dYdX

dYdX is a number one decentralized buying and selling platform for perpetual futures, supporting over 200 buying and selling pairs with a number of the deepest liquidity, quick and seamless order execution, and industry-leading low charges.

Since launching in 2018, dYdX  has change into probably the most broadly used platforms in decentralized perpetual buying and selling, with a complete buying and selling quantity exceeding $1.5 trillion so far. dYdX was additionally the primary alternate to construct perpetual futures buying and selling on a decentralized alternate (DEX).

The platform options an intuitive and highly effective buying and selling interface with every part merchants want — together with superior order varieties, a number of margin modes, threat administration instruments, charting and evaluation instruments, and leverage as much as 50x.

Conclusion

The dYdX Surge Program exhibits how decentralized finance can provide inclusive and clear incentives for merchants, with out counting on only one metric like revenue or buying and selling quantity. Since every part occurs in a decentralized approach, dYdX Surge has a community-driven and versatile reward construction that may be adjusted by means of on-chain voting. The program is accessible to each novices and skilled customers, aiming for long-term engagement and regular progress of the complete dYdX ecosystem.

To be taught extra concerning the dYdX Surge, observe the official sources:

dYdX Website | Download dYdX App | X | Discord | Blog