Arcus | Why Use the dYdX × Robinhood 24/7 DEX, and How to Prep for the Airdrop

Arcus is a 24/7 on-chain DEX launched by dYdX Labs and Robinhood Crypto together. You can trade stock tokens with zero fees on the spot side, and hold RWA perpetual futures (perps) with up to 50x leverage — all from a single self-custody wallet account.

The token hasn't been issued yet, so what to watch right now isn't the expected value of a distribution but the single question of whether there's a product-side reason to use this thing in the first place.

👉 Visit the official Arcus site

Arcus is a project that bundles the exchange technology dYdX has built up over the years with the large customer base Robinhood holds, all into a single exchange.

You can trade 95 stock tokens with zero fees anytime, and open positions across 35 RWA perpetual futures markets from the same account. Stocks, crypto, commodities, and indices all line up in one wallet.

A stock token doesn't mean you own the stock itself. The issuer (Robinhood Crypto) holds the underlying asset 1:1 as a reserve, and the token is a contractual exposure that tracks its price movements. The rights differ from directly holding the stock.

Arcus's starting point is a postmortem of the defeat of dYdX itself, its parent. It was rebuilt not from an abstract ideal but from the self-criticism that "we achieved decentralization, yet lost on speed and distribution."

dYdX took its perpetual futures DEX all the way to full decentralization in v4 (200+ markets, 50+ validators, order-book based). But decentralization on its own guarantees neither speed nor ease of use.

As a result, it steadily lost on-chain perp volume share to rivals like Hyperliquid that prioritized speed, simplicity, and liquidity. dYdX officially acknowledged this, admitting that "performance and user experience were sacrificed, and the market responded clearly."

So Arcus is what came out of redesigning everything from scratch with performance, liquidity, UX, and distribution as the top priorities. CEO Eddie Zhang describes who it was built for in the first person: "Arcus is the exchange we always wished existed — serving pros and institutions while opening the door to the millions of individual traders who otherwise never would have gotten in."

dYdX founder Antonio Juliano himself didn't take the CEO seat, moving to the board instead and putting Eddie — brought in through an acquisition — at the helm. Arcus's single biggest weapon isn't a new feature but its very origin of "having borrowed Robinhood's distribution," and without knowing this background you'll misread where its edge lies.

The heart of Arcus lies less in raising performance than in the decision "not to gather customers on its own."

To deliver CEX-grade execution on-chain while also handling the issuance and redemption of stock tokens, you have to satisfy three things at once: a low-latency order book and matching, 1:1 backing of the underlying shares with issuer integration, and regulatory compliance outside the US.

For a standalone team, distribution — how to bring customers in — ends up being the biggest wall of all. Arcus went straight at that wall by building on top of the Robinhood Chain base and Robinhood Crypto's 25 million-plus existing accounts. This is something dYdX v4 never had.

The execution mechanism also avoids fighting with an in-house order book alone. Spot uses a method called Spot RFQ: when a user requests a price, professional market makers return firm quotes, and the best of those quotes settles as a single bundled on-chain transaction.

Perpetual futures, meanwhile, run on a dYdX-derived cross-margin order book with oracle pricing, and can be opened up to 50x. Cross-margin, TP/SL orders, and funding rates are standard equipment any exchange of this kind would obviously bring, so they aren't what separates the decision. What's hard to imitate is the bundling — satisfying the three constraints at once and then layering 25 million accounts on top — and comparing single features one by one won't reveal the edge.

Before measuring the reasons to use it, let's first look at the costs it actually carries right now and the points where you're likely to get stuck.

Spot stock token trading is zero-fee as of launch. That alone is a reason to give it a try. Perpetual futures fees, on the other hand, look quite high at the time of writing — but these are provisional early-beta figures, and the team explicitly states they are "still being finalized," so you can't read the face value as the settled rate. The full seven-tier table is as follows (measured provisional values as of July 9, 2026).

The thinness of the book is also part of today's reality. Perpetual futures 24-hour volume, measured as of July 14, 2026, is roughly $2.93 million, of which the single BTC-USD pair accounts for about 47%.

This figure swings widely — from $250,000 to $3 million within a few days — early-beta noise where a handful of pairs move the total. It can't be read as evidence that real demand is growing.

When the book is thin, you get more slippage — fills at prices worse than you expected. Compared with a thick-book on-chain venue like edgeX, the slippage risk of placing a larger order on Arcus today becomes tangible.

On top of that, perpetual futures run up to 50x leverage, so if the price moves against you your margin gets eaten fast and liquidation can wipe out your position. Regional restrictions are heavy too: you can't use it in restricted regions such as the US, UK, and Canada. Japan isn't named on the restriction list, but it isn't officially stated as "usable" either, so always check for yourself before you touch it.

👉 Check supported regions and the latest fees on the official site

The most certain practical benefit on Arcus right now is the spot side, where you can trade stock tokens 24/7 with zero fees. The terms are clear, and in supported regions anyone can use it without a waitlist. The perpetual futures side, with provisionally high face-value fees and a thin book, isn't yet at a stage where its current volume can justify a reason to use it.

Robinhood's distribution of 25 million accounts is the part of this deal that's hardest to imitate. But that's more at the stage of "holding the potential to work" than "already working now," and whether those customers actually flow into trading on Arcus is a question future volume will answer. With volume still bouncing among a handful of pairs, the strength of that distribution hasn't yet shown up in the numbers.

The backing is also worth viewing calmly. A stock token is a contractual exposure, not direct ownership of the stock, and just how smoothly redemption and issuer integration actually run is something that will only become clear as it gets used in earnest. The origin of admitting dYdX v4's defeat and rebuilding is trustworthy as a posture, but until that lesson turns into the numbers of execution and liquidity, watching without getting ahead of your expectations is the balanced distance to keep.

Can I use it from Japan?

Restricted regions such as the US, UK, and Canada are named, but Japan isn't explicitly listed. That said, it isn't officially stated as "usable" either, so nothing can be asserted. Check the supported-region notice yourself before you touch it.

How much do I need to start?

Spot stock tokens are zero-fee and can be tried with a small amount. Perpetual futures have a minimum order size per market; BTC-USD starts from the equivalent of about $5.

Do stock tokens come with dividends or voting rights?

No. Only the price movement is tracked; there are no shareholder dividends or voting rights. It's strictly a price exposure backed by the issuer's reserves, and it's a different thing from directly holding the stock.

The only thing settled about the token is the fact — acknowledged by the dYdX Foundation's CEO — that Arcus will issue its own token, separate from $DYDX. The allocation ratio, the timing, and the TGE are all unannounced, so treating the distribution (airdrop) as nothing more than a bonus that comes as a result is the reasonable distance to keep. On top of that, what the team clearly signals is a policy of reserving part of the future allocation, on a priority basis, for people who have traded, staked, or validated on dYdX. Perpetual futures waitlist ranking is decided by past perp volume and RWA volume on other venues, and by referrals from verified traders.

While the token is still unissued, the practical preparation is less about chasing the distribution and more about "actually using spot in a supported region and building up a dYdX track record."

1. Set up a self-custody wallet from a supported region (US, UK, and Canada not allowed)

2. Connect to spot (Spot Beta) on the official Arcus site (no waitlist required)

3. Buy and sell a stock token once with a small amount, and check the flow of per-token approvals and transaction signing

4. If you're after perpetual futures, connect your wallet and X at waitlist.arcus.xyz

5. Build up and maintain a track record on dYdX — trading, staking, and so on (eligible for priority allocation)

6. Follow only @arcus_xyz as the official X account (there are warnings about fake accounts)

Note that right after the announcement, $DYDX fell roughly 20–23%. This was a backlash against Arcus running on Robinhood Chain rather than dYdX's own chain; keep the headwind on existing $DYDX holdings separate from expectations for Arcus.

👉 Check the participation requirements and waitlist

Perpetual futures volume bouncing day to day among a handful of pairs is the current reality — and it's exactly where Arcus stands right now. Zero-fee spot on stock tokens is the only practical benefit it can put into numbers today, and in a supported region you can use it right now.

Sources

1. dYdX (2026) "A New Arc" — https://www.dydx.xyz/blog/a-new-arc

2. Arcus official blog (2026) "Arcus x Robinhood: Trade Stocks & Perpetuals 24/7" — https://arcus.xyz/blog/arcus-x-robinhood-trade-stocks-perpetuals-24-7

3. Arcus official documentation (2026) Spot RFQ / Fees — https://docs.arcus.xyz

4. Arcus official API (2026) GET /v1/markets · /v1/feetiers — https://api.arcus.xyz/v1/markets

5. The Defiant (2026) dYdX launches Arcus DEX — https://thedefiant.io/news/defi/dydx-launches-arcus-dex-stock-tokens-perpetuals-robinhood-chain

6. CryptoBriefing (2026) Arcus DEX launch — https://cryptobriefing.com/arcus-dex-launch-dydx-robinhood/

7. Cryptopolitan (2026) $DYDX drops after Arcus launch — https://www.cryptopolitan.com/dydx-launches-arcus-dex-on-robinhood-chain-as-dydx-token-drops-23/