TL;DR

• 🚀 Free Trading for Front-end Traders: In October 2025, 100% of perps trading fees paid by web, mobile, and Telegram traders will be fully rebated in DYDX via the Surge Incentive Program, making dYdX the most rewarding place to trade 240+ perp markets.
• 🚀 50% Fee Rebates for API Traders: All API traders will continue to receive 50% rebates on positive fees through the end of 2025, providing certainty and stability for market makers into Q4.
• 💸 $1M monthly in Additional DYDX Rewards for Front-end Traders: On top of rebates, Front-end traders will share a $1M DYDX prize pool in October, distributed proportionally by fees paid.
• 📊 Simplified 7-tier fee schedule with lower, linear thresholds (no market share or exchange share requirements), and a market leading maker rebate of -1.1bps.
• ⚡ Order Entry Gateway Service (OEGS): institutional-grade low-latency routing for market makers, without needing to run a full node.
• 🚢 Past 9 months focused on delivering a CEX-like trading experience: free & fast deposits, high stability, low latency, integrations via builder codes and partner revenue sharing, and a telegram bot launch. The dYdX Protocol is now ready to scale.
• 🔜 Preview: October Protocol release: affiliate program on-chain, staking-based fee discounts, per-market fee schedule, and spot launch, subject to approval by dYdX governance.

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Why This Matters

At dYdX, we’ve been focused on performance, stability, and product readiness. With these foundations in place, Q4 is about growth. To catalyze this, the dYdX community has aligned fees and incentives around three principles: simplicity, competitiveness, and community-first rewards. 

Surge Program Updates

Chaos Labs recently detailed changes to the Surge Program available here.

Season 6 (Sep 1–30, 2025):

• 50% of fees rebated in DYDX.
• UI-trader pool boosted to $1M in DYDX based on fees paid.
• Rewards tied directly to Protocol usage, making incentives more predictable.

Season 7 (Oct 1–31, 2025):

• Front-End Fee Holiday: 100% of fees rebated in DYDX.
• API Fee Rebates: 50% of fees rebated in DYDX through year-end.
• $1M Front-End Rewards Pool: Distributed based on fees paid.
• dYdX becomes the lowest-cost trading venue in perps, surpassing both centralized and decentralized competitors.
• To protect legitimate traders and maintain program integrity, Chaos Labs will implement rigorous monitoring through our wash trading detection systems.

Fee Holiday & Simplified Fee Tiers

In Surge Season 6, a governance proposal passed to streamline the fee schedule:

• Reduced from 9 to 7 tiers, with linear, volume-based thresholds ($50M, $100M, $200M).
• No market or exchange share requirements. Top-tier rebates are now easier to qualify for.
• Negative maker fees remain, up to –0.011% for ≥$200M volume.

Combined with the Surge Incentive Program fee holiday, starting October 1 2025, the effective fee schedule is:

Effective Fee Schedule (Season 7 Fee Holiday):

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This structure levels the playing field and empowers traders with attractive rates, even when compared to other CEXs and perp DEXs. 

Simplified Rewards Structure

The dYdX community also recently voted to remove overlapping protocol-level rewards from the Trading Rewards program, consolidating everything under the Surge Program. This reduces complexity for users and overhead for the Protocol. It also frees up 300K–500K DYDX/month that can be reallocated to growth initiatives.

Market Structure: What This Means for Traders

For retail and UI traders

• Simple, predictable rewards. With 100% fee rebates in Season 7, dYdX offers the lowest effective cost basis across any perp DEX or CEX.
• Equal treatment across Telegram, web, and mobile — all eligible for $1M in DYDX rewards.

For market makers

• Simple, predictable rewards. With 50% fee rebates through 2025, dYdX offers the lowest effective cost basis across any perp DEX or CEX.
• Volume is now the only determinant for fee rebates, lowering barriers for new entrants while scaling incentives for larger firms.
• With fee rebates up to –0.011%, large makers are effectively paid to provide liquidity.
• The Order Entry Gateway Service (OEGS) and proposer set reduction provide direct, low-latency access to proposers without the need to run validators.
• Together, this infrastructure + fee design encourages deeper books, tighter spreads, and better fills, all while preserving decentralization.

For API traders and institutions

• Simple, predictable rewards. With 50% fee rebates through 2025, dYdX offers the lowest effective cost basis across any perp DEX or CEX.
• Clear, volume-only thresholds that make trading costs more predictable.
• Easier to model capital allocation and quoting strategies.
• With protocol-level rewards removed, effective cost savings now depend directly on fee tier performance, driving more API-driven flow and hedging activities.

The Bigger Picture

After 9 months of focussing on delivering a CEX-like trading experience, the dYdX ecosystem is aligned that Q4 is going to be about growth. With new fee tiers, rebates, and simplified rewards, dYdX is primed to:

• Give retail traders access to lowest-cost trading
• Attract professional flow with transparent, competitive tiers
• Grow ecosystem liquidity with aligned, predictable rewards

Disclaimer 

dYdX is a decentralised, disintermediated and permissionless protocol, and is not available in the U.S. or to other restricted persons. All use of dYdX software is subject to the dYdX Software Terms of Use. 

All use of the Telegram trading bot is subject to the Pocket Protector Terms of Use. 

This post describes anticipated features in the open source dYdX software. The implementation of these features in any live deployment of dYdX software will be decided by the relevant deployer community. dYdX International Ltd. (“DI”), dYdX Trading Inc. dba dYdX Labs (“dYdX Labs”) and their affiliates do not develop, control or operate any component of dYdX software for public use. The information provided in this website is for general informational purposes only and DI reserves the right to update, modify, or amend any contents herein, at its sole discretion and without prior notice. Nothing herein should be used or considered as legal, financial, tax, or any other advice, nor as an instruction or invitation to act in any way by anyone. 

Engaging in any activity involving crypto-assets (including trading crypto assets and depositing into the MegaVault) is risky due to high volatility. Returns are not guaranteed and may fluctuate over time depending on multiple factors, and you may lose your entire investment, particularly when using leverage. Investment into crypto-assets may not be regulated and may not be suitable for retail investors. You should perform your own research and due diligence before engaging in any activity involving crypto-assets. 

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