Latest news with #PocketProtector
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
dYdX acquires Pocket Protector app in push to social trading as volumes fall 95%
dYdX, the decentralised exchange, announced the acquisition of the social trading application, Pocket Protector. 'What's especially exciting is their technology will enable a rapid expansion of the core dYdX product in the months to come,' Antonio Juliano, Founder and CEO of dYdX told DL News. This comes at a time when dYdX is losing market share in the landscape of onchain leverage trading, largely due to the success of competitors such as Hyperliquid. Now dYdX is looking to make a strategic shift into social trading as they face increasing competition. Pocket Protector Pocket Protector is a social trading application on Telegram that allows users to trade together in group chats. Founded in 2024, it has amassed over 50,000 users and over $1 billion in annualised revenue. As part of this acquisition, the Pocket Protector development team will merge with dYdX, with co-founder Eddie Zhang joining as president. dYdX said the team brings extensive experience ranging from social media and mobile app development to trading and blockchain technology. Combined, the team has raised over $25 million from major venture capital firms across their various projects. 'What really stood out was the caliber of the team - their product sense, execution speed, and engineering quality are top-tier. They are a strong cultural and technical fit,' said Juliano. dYdX declined to share how much it paid for Pocket Protector. In 2024, the firm raised $7 million at an undisclosed valuation from investors including Electric Capital and Dragonfly Capital. It's not clear how dYdX will utilise Pocket Protector to boost its business. The firm said it is 'excited about upcoming product experiences their technology will enable directly in the core dYdX product.' dYdX performance Founded in 2017, dYdX was the first decentralised exchange to offer leverage trading onchain. Since introducing perpetual futures in 2020, the platform has processed about $1.5 trillion in volume, according to DeFiLlama. Being the first onchain leverage platform, dYdX accounted for almost the entirety of onchain leverage volumes. But as competitors such as GMX and Hyperliquid launched, dYdX's market share rapidly diminished. Perpetual futures volumes for dYdX hit a record high of $107 billion in October 2021, but has since fallen about 95% to $4.7 billion in June. dYdX is currently the eighth largest onchain leverage platform by monthly volume. Hyperliquid takes the top spot by a large margin, processing $215 billion in volume in June, over 45 times larger than dYdX and about 12 times more than the next largest platform, Jupiter. The dYdX token followed a similar pattern, falling over 85% from its record high in 2024. To attempt to break this trend, dYdX will follow a roadmap that includes 'major new product, protocol, and growth initiatives,' it said. Zachary Rampone is a DeFi correspondent at DL News. Have a tip? Contact him at zrampone@ Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Los Angeles Times
28-07-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
West Hollywood Trading App Acquired to Expand Currency Technology
West Hollywood trading app Pocket Protector was acquired by dYdX Trading Inc. for an undisclosed amount. As part of the acquisition, Eddie Zhang is joining as President and Kaiser Kinbote as Head of Growth, alongside their four-person engineering team. Pocket Protector, founded in 2024, built a Telegram-native trading app that grew virally to 50,000 users and over $1 billion in annualized trading volume. 'Pocket Protector's products will join the dYdX product suite, and I'm excited for how their technology will power the expansion of the main dYdX product,' said Antonio Juliano, chief executive and founder of dYdX Trading Inc., in a statement. Zhang previously worked at Meta on its Messenger app and co-founded the social app Fam. Kinbote's experience includes investments in several early-stage crypto projects. Gunderson Dettmer represented Pocket Protector in the transaction. Information for this article was sourced from dYdX Trading Inc.
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Decentralized Exchange dYdX Acquires Social Trading App Pocket Protector
Decentralized exchange (DEX) dYdX said it bought Pocket Protector, a social-trading startup known for its Telegram-based trading bot. The financial details of the deal were not revealed. The eight-year-old company known for its derivatives market also said it appointed Pocket Protector co-founder Eddie Zhang, who previously worked at Meta, as its new president. The purchase comes about a year after Bloomberg reported that dYdX was looking for a buyer for some of its software. The acquisition positions dYdX for its next phase of growth in the increasingly competitive decentralized finance (DeFi) derivatives market, pushing into social trading to compete with newer, more consumer-focused platforms, a dYdX representative said in an email. The exchange is the fifth-largest derivatives DEX by total value locked (TVL) according to DeFiLlama data. Pocket Protector, founded in 2024 by Zhang and Kaiser Kinbote, lets users trade directly in group chats, a format that has drawn over 50,000 users and reached more than $1 billion in annualized trading volume in its first year. The platform is backed by Electric Capital and Dragonfly Capital. Zhang previously worked on Messenger at Meta and co-founded the social app Fam, while Kinbote has invested in several early-stage crypto projects and brings experience in token design and community growth. 'These additions enable us to execute rapidly on an ambitious roadmap,' dYdX founder Antonio Juliano said in a statement. 'Eddie's founder mindset and product depth will help us ship powerful new experiences fast.' DYdX will continue supporting Pocket Protector's existing tools while planning tighter integration into its core platform. In a statement shared with CoinDesk, the company hinted at upcoming releases involving new trading protocols and user nel recupero dei dati Effettua l'accesso per consultare il tuo portafoglio Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati
