21Shares Launches DYDX ETP as DeFi Derivatives Charge Into Mainstream Finance
DeFi's derivatives revolution just got a Wall Street passport—21Shares drops the first exchange-traded product tracking dYdX's native token, bringing decentralized perpetual swaps to traditional portfolios.
Breaking the Institutional Barrier
No more complex wallets or regulatory gray zones—this ETP wraps dYdX’s governance and fee-sharing mechanics into a tidy, compliant package. Traders now get leveraged crypto exposure without touching a seed phrase or navigating a decentralized app.
Derivatives Eat the World
Perps trading volumes have been quietly dominating crypto’s backend for years. dYdX alone cleared $1T in notional volume since 2021—now that liquidity gets a direct pipeline to traditional capital markets. Move over, Bitcoin futures—algorithmic market makers and structured products are next.
Wall Street’s Ironic Embrace
Banks once called DeFi 'dangerous' and 'unregulated.' Now they’re packaging its tokens for wealthy clients—because nothing soothes regulatory fears like a 2% management fee. The revolution won’t be decentralized—it’ll be securitized, leveraged, and sold back to you at a premium.
Bridging the gap between TradFi and DeFi’s engine
Marcelo Ruiz de Olano, CEO and co-founder of kpk, framed the development as a critical simplification of DeFi’s complexity for traditional capital. He noted that promising DeFi tokens often “fly under the radar” for institutional investors lacking the technical bandwidth for on-chain operations.
The ETP, he stated, changes this by making dYdX accessible through a simple ticker and trade mechanism, integrating it into the existing infrastructure used for any listed security. Additionally, Ruiz de Olano highlighted kpk’s role through the Treasury subDAO in aligning real protocol revenues with tokenholder value, positioning the ETP as an entry point into the protocol’s economic activity without the operational hurdles.
In the statement, the launch is contextualized by a staggering market disparity. While global derivatives markets command over $100 trillion in notional value after growing 2% year on year at end-June 2024, DeFi’s share remains miniscule, capturing less than one percent of this vast scale.
This yawning gap represents both the nascent stage of on-chain derivatives and their monumental growth potential. The 21Shares DYDX ETP arrives as a pivotal instrument, providing a regulated and familiar vehicle for institutions to gain exposure to this potential expansion.
dYdX’s traction
Notably, the product’s introduction is synchronized with dYdX’s own high-velocity expansion plans. 21Shares indicated the launch is aligned with the protocol’s MOVE into new, transformative verticals, according to its updated roadmap.
This includes the imminent rollout of Telegram trading, which promises seamless cross-platform execution, and the upcoming integration of spot trading, beginning with Solana. Most significantly, the protocol is venturing into perpetual contracts for real-world assets, such as equities and pre-IPO shares, directly on-chain. This expansion fundamentally broadens DYDX’s utility beyond crypto natives, targeting the very heart of traditional finance.
