What is dYdX?

dYdX is a Decentralized Exchange (DEX) in Ethereum which offers free trading to every user who trade a volume of less than $100,000 in the past 30 days.

• After some time they launch their own Layer-2 protocol using Zero Knowledge-Rollup Technology (The same as Polygon) to reduce gas cost and increase their TPS.
• Their Utility Token the $DYDX is used to pay trading fees and stake in this L2, having a total supply of 1 Billion this token is going to be unlocked over five years expecting to be fully unlocked in September 2026.

What is the deal with the Unlocks?

• In August 2021 the first unlock of $DYDX Happened, and over the course of the months a small amount of $DYDX was also unlocked.
• In 2023 users were expecting the second big Unlock of $DYDX, specifically in February 3, 2023 date when 150M of the Tokens were expected to be released to early investors and dYdX founding team members.

But DYDX Postponed their Unlock to December 2023

In January 24 dYdX announced a lock-up extension for the funds and a new allocation for the monthly unlocks.

The reason behind this movement may be to prevent a shorting opportunity for traders.

So I’ll examine the past activity of DYDX token since November 2022, and see how the new year has affected the activity of this token.

Holders of DYDX Token Metrics

📊Transfers of DYDX Token Metrics📊

📊Swaps of DYDX Token 📊

📊Volume of DYDX being Swapped📊

🔎DYDX Token Swaps Analysis🔍

• In November 2022 there is a significant amount of swaps and swapper activity which decreases over time
• December 2022 have more Volume of DYDX being swapped thant November 2022 but less activity overall.
• In January 2023 there is a significant increase in the Swapped Volume of DYDX and the total swaps with the day after the announcement having the biggest spikes in swaps.

🔎DYDX Token Transfer in 2023 Analysis🔍

Most of the Transfer Volume goes directly to Binance followed by Uniswap, but Uniswap have the biggest activity in transfers and senders followed by Binance.

• It’s seems that the favorite places to send DYDX are Centralized and Decentralized Exchanges.
• Transfer Volume reached a spike one day after the announcement of DYDX with Binance receiving 4M of DYDX

Methodology

Images Source: DYDX Supply Schedule, DYDX.

Using FlipsideCrypto Data tables of Ethereum and DYDX Contract Address (0x92D6C1e31e14520e676a687F0a93788B716BEff5).

• ethereum.core.ez_current_balances: To get the holders of DYDX with user_address.

• ethereum.core.ez_token_transfers: To get the transfers of DYDX.

  • tx_hash: To count the transfers.
  • from_address: To count the senders.
  • amount: For the DYDX Volume.
  • amount_usd: For the $USD Volume.
  • joining it with ethereum.core.dim_labels on to_address = address to get the popular destinations of dYdX Transfers.

• ethereum.core.ez_dex_swaps: To Get the Swaps of DYDX.

  • tx_hash: To count the swaps
  • origin_from_address: To get the Swappers
  • amount_(in/out): To get the DYDX Volume

Made by Popex404, Twitter Link Here

Summary

The amount of holders seems to be increasing considerably in the last 3 months, there is significant activity in November 2022, but after that most of the days have small activity, but since January 2023 the activity seems to uptrend as the month goes on.

Have holders begun preparing for this massive unlock?

Yes, we can see by the amount of activity in January 2023, that in the past days a lot of transfers and swaps are being made and the last months have the biggest amount of new DYDX Holders.

If so, what actions are they taking to prepare?

A lot of them are moving their dYdX to Centralized and Decentralized exchange with Uniswap and Binance being the favorites option.

• It’s seems that some of them are selling and other buying, in the same amount.

How do you expect the market to react in the weeks leading up to and following the unlock?

• It’s seems that most of traders were preparing for a shorting opportunity, to buy and sell tokens after the unlock, as we can see by the amount of swap volume in the last days.
• But after the recent news of dYdX postponing the Unlock, the activity reached the biggest spikes in January 25, so it’s seems that activity may be high in the following weeks but after the first days of February, this Hype trend will end.

📊Total Holders by Token Balance📊

📊New Holders by Balance📊

📊Transfer Activity of DYDX in 2023📊

🔎Holders Analysis🔍

In September 8, 2021 a lot of new holders appeared, and most of them received less than 10 DYDX, since that day on the amount of holders is increasing constantly.

• In September 2021 the amount of New Holders reached their Spike.
• The following Months the new holders didn’t pass the 2000 mark, but in November 2022 we can see another spike again of New Holders, which stays the following months.
• Most of the Holders by Month have a balance of 1000 or less DYDX Tokens, with the tiers:
  • Less than 10 DYDX, 10-100 DYDX and 100-1000 DYDX competing each months in popularity.

As explained before most of the holders (Almost 90%) have less than 1000 DYDX Tokens

🔎DYDX Transfer Analysis🔍

In November 2022 there is a relevant activity of senders and transfers, which decreases over time, in December 21 we can see a transfer of 8M DYDX ($11M USD), but after that in the holidays the activity and transfer volume is really small.

In 2023 The activity and transfer volume starts uptrending with the activity reaching significant spikes in the past days, January 25 a day after the DYDX announcement of their new allocations have the biggest activity spikes and Transfer Volume.

Red Means More DYDX Was Bought and Green More DYDX Being Sold