The CEO and founder of the decentralized exchange (DEX), dYdX, has announced his decision to step down from his role after leading the crypto derivatives platform for seven years. In a blog post on May 13, Antonio Juliano revealed that he would be transitioning to the position of chairman and president, while Ivo Crnkovic-Rubsamen, the former chief strategy officer, would take over as the company’s new leader.
Juliano explained that he recognized that he no longer needed to be the CEO and instead focused on mentoring other leaders within the company until Crnkovic-Rubsamen was ready to assume the role. As for his own future, Juliano admitted that he had no specific plans or ideas regarding his next career move. Before establishing dYdX, Juliano had worked as a software engineer at prominent companies like Coinbase, Uber, and MongoDB.
dYdX has experienced a surge in activity in recent months, coinciding with the recovery of the crypto markets. According to DefiLlama data, the DEX currently boasts a market capitalization of over $1.1 billion and a total value locked of $463 million. Its annualized revenue stands at $35.4 million, and since 2021, derivatives activity on the platform has generated a trading volume exceeding $1.31 trillion.
The increase in trading activity can be attributed to various developments within the protocol, including the launch of dYdX’s own layer-1 blockchain in October 2023. This blockchain operates using the DYDX token for network transactions and offers incentives to validators and stakers by returning gas fees. Moreover, dYdX introduced its v4 upgrade in January, transitioning the DEX from Ethereum to the Cosmos network.
Derivatives volume at dYdX. Source: DefiLlama
In other news, a recent study revealed that 1 in 6 new Base memecoins are scams, with 91% of them possessing vulnerabilities.