Robinhood, dYdX Labs Launch Arcus Perpetuals DEX
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- Robinhood partnered with dYdX Labs to launch Arcus, a new DEX offering perpetuals and tokenized stock trading that is set to go live this month.
- Arcus will let tokenized stocks serve as collateral for perpetuals and provide access to pre-IPO markets, the protocol said in a blog post, framing the product as opening US equities, commodities, and indices to global traders shut out by market hours and institutional restrictions.
- Robinhood Crypto, the company's crypto technology arm, made an investment in Arcus, though the parties did not disclose financial details.
- The dYdX Foundation clarified that Arcus is a "distinct, independent product built on separate infrastructure" and that the dYdX blockchain will continue operating and remain owned by its community.
- The push comes as Hyperliquid has captured share in crypto perpetuals trading, with its token climbing nearly 150% year-to-date.
- Bitget Wallet announced a Wednesday partnership with Robinhood Crypto to integrate Robinhood Chain, enabling its users to trade tokenized stocks.
- 1inch said it would be among the first major swap platforms to support Robinhood Chain, following Coinbase's 2023 launch of its Base layer-2 blockchain, now the fifth-largest by value locked.
Why it matters: Robinhood is directly challenging Hyperliquid, whose token has gained nearly 150% year-to-date, by launching a perpetuals DEX that accepts tokenized US stocks as collateral. The Arcus design folds TradFi-style assets into on-chain leverage at a moment when Coinbase is also expanding into stocks, intensifying competition for retail derivatives traders and giving Bitget Wallet and 1inch early footholds in Robinhood's new chain.
