DYDX Surges 9% After Derivatives Exchange Unveils Buyback Program

The protocol is allocating 25% of network fees to a staking initiative intended to increase network security while decreasing the tokens in circulation.

By: Leo Jakobson • March 24, 2025

DYDX Surges 9% After Derivatives Exchange Unveils Buyback Program

Derivatives trading platform dYdX is launching a buyback program to strengthen network security while decreasing the number of tokens in circulation.

The decentralized perpetuals exchange announced the changes in a blog post on March 24, revealing that 25% of the network’s net fees will be used to buy DYDX tokens on the open market and stake them.

The project’s native DYDX token surged 10% on the announcement and is up 13% for the week, according to CoinGecko. At about $0.72, DYDX is up 40% from its March 11 all-time low of $0.51.

It has a total value locked (TVL) of $276 million, according to DeFiLlama.

The DYDX Buyback Program is not the only change to the platform’s revenue distribution.

Aside from the 25% buybacks, 10% of revenue will go to the treasury, another 25% will go to its Megavault liquidity program, and 40% will go to staking rewards. Previously, 100% of the protocol’s revenue went toward staking rewards for ecosystem participants.

The blog post added that community discussions are already looking at the possibility of raising the monthly buybacks to 100%.

“If the allocation to buybacks were to increase to 100% of net protocol fees, it could significantly accelerate the reduction of tokens in circulation while further strengthening network security and validator incentives,” the post reads.

Ambitious Goals

The protocol also said it is “undergoing one of its most ambitious evolutions yet, with Spot Trading, Multi-Asset Margining, and EVM Support on the horizon.” The goal is to expand in order to onboard a new generation of DeFi traders, it added.

dYdX said it generated $270 billion in trade volume and $46 million in network fees in 2024. That said, fees are down dramatically since 2024. It generated just $1.27 million in revenue in February.

dYdX Fees and Revenue chart — dYdX Fees and Revenue

This June also marks the end of its cross-chain bridge, which is intended to allow tokenholders to migrate the old ethDYDX over to the DYDX tokens. That would remove any unbridged tokens from circulation on the new dYdX Layer-1.

The migration from Ethereum happened in 2023, dYdX said, and “token holders have been consistently encouraged to consider bridging their ethDYDX tokens before the deadline.”