Arcus, a new decentralized exchange for tokenized stocks and crypto perpetuals, launched on the Robinhood Chain on July 1, with dYdX founder Antonio Juliano moving to a board role as the project operates as a separate entity with its own planned token. In the 24 hours after the news, the DYDX token fell about 23%, while trading activity around Arcus surged, underscoring a shift in the DeFi derivatives landscape.
Arcus was created as a joint venture between dYdX Labs and Robinhood Crypto to pair tokenized equities with crypto perpetual futures on a platform designed to trade 24/7 outside the US, UK, and Canada. The move accompanies Juliano’s transition to an executive board role and the appointment of Eddie Zhang as the new CEO and co-founder of Arcus, who previously worked at dYdX after Pocket Protector. The project will issue a future Arcus Token, but as of July 2, no official tokenomics or governance documents had been published detailing allocation, eligibility, vesting, or distribution.
“The best move for me, for the team, and for the dYdX community is Arcus, with Eddie at the helm,” Juliano wrote.
Arcus is described as one of the first DeFi platforms launched on Robinhood Chain, an Ethereum Layer 2 network built on Arbitrum Orbit and fully EVM-compatible to enable tokenized Real World Asset tokens. The exchange aims to fix performance and user experience concerns observed on previous chain designs by focusing on trading performance and liquidity. The plan is to enable tokenized stock positions to be used as collateral for perpetual futures, enabling cross-margining of equities and crypto derivatives within a single account.
As of launch, Arcus announced zero-fee spot trades for 95 tokenized stocks. Perpetual futures trading is in private beta for institutions and large-volume traders, with a public waitlist for others awaiting information on access timelines and rollout. The timeline for a public rollout of perpetual futures remains unannounced.
The integration of tokenized stocks with crypto derivatives through Arcus could allow cross-margining of equities and crypto within a single account, potentially reducing fragmented capital requirements for traders who hold both asset classes. The use of Robinhood Chain provides an environment tailored to tokenized assets and aims to improve execution speed and liquidity relative to the previous dYdX setup. Arcus’ development also places pressure on existing DeFi derivatives platforms as traders evaluate new liquidity and performance dynamics on a specialized network.
Arcus has not disclosed a confirmed public date for perpetual futures rollout or tokenomics details for its native token. The market will closely watch whether Arcus can attract meaningful liquidity and how the future Arcus Token will be allocated among dYdX community members, potential investors, and ecosystem participants once those details are published.
Juliano stated that moving Arcus forward with Eddie at the helm is the best move for the team and the dYdX community, and he noted that Arcus represents a shift of focus from the dYdX chain itself toward a dedicated platform for tokenized assets.
Investors will monitor three major milestones in the coming months: the opening of perpetual trading to retail users, the publication of detailed Arcus token allocation terms for the dYdX community, and evidence that Robinhood Chain can attract meaningful liquidity in competition with established decentralized derivatives platforms.
