Robinhood has partnered with dYdX Labs to launch a new decentralized exchange, Arcus, on the freshly deployed Robinhood Chain. The platform represents a significant rebranding of the existing dYdX protocol infrastructure into a distinct product.
Arcus will focus on expanding access to restricted markets. The DEX plans to offer perpetual products and fee-free trading for 95 tokenized stocks, while also allowing users to leverage tokenized equities as collateral for perpetuals. The service is scheduled to go live this month.
The Robinhood Chain, an Arbitrum-based layer 2 network, went live concurrently with the announcement. The underlying dYdX blockchain remains community-owned and operates independently from this new venture. The move sees Robinhood aggressively targeting the booming crypto perpetuals market, directly competing with platforms that have seen explosive growth by capturing professional and retail market share.
The launch also includes immediate ecosystem support, with Bitget Wallet integrating the Robinhood Chain for tokenized stock trading, and the decentralized exchange 1inch joining as one of the first major swap platforms to support the new network.