A Look Back at dYdX Surge Season 4: Building Momentum for Bigger Rewards Ahead

dYdX Foundation
Aug 14, 2025

Season 4 of the dYdX Surge program concluded last month with 2.377 million DYDX (≈ $1.50M USD) distributed to 1,969 traders on dYdX. The season reinforced Surge’s role as both a competitive arena for high-volume traders and a consistent reward engine for active participants across the spectrum - laying the groundwork for even greater opportunities in Season 5 and upcoming seasons.

Season 4 Highlights

  • Total Rewards Distributed: 2.377M DYDX (~$1.50M USD)
  • Trading Volume: $7.7B across 226+ markets (+64% vs. prior 30 days)
  • Active Traders: 7,200+ unique participants (+43%)
  • Protocol Fees: $1.7M collected in the season (cumulative now $55.9M)

Reward Distribution: A Program for Every Trader Profile

Season 4 attracted nearly 2,000 wallets, reflecting a healthy mix of professional, high-frequency traders and smaller participants steadily building their positions.

  • Top performers: The five highest-earning wallets captured a substantial share - led by a single 269,152 DYDX payout - showcasing Surge’s appeal as a proving ground for sophisticated, high-volume strategies.
  • Mid-tier & retail: Hundreds of traders in the $500–$5,000 bracket demonstrated that consistent participation and disciplined market activity can produce meaningful returns, even without the highest volumes.
  • Broad accessibility: From first-time competitors to repeat participants, the program’s structure ensures performance at all levels is rewarded - creating a meritocratic, volume-based incentive system that appeals across trading styles.

Payout Breakdown:

Market Dynamics & Behaviour in Season 4

Surge incentives helped shape trading behaviour on dYdX:

  • Core pairs strengthened: ETH (+65%) and BTC (+26%) volumes increased notably
  • Altcoin volume breakouts: XLM (+2,565%), LTC (+758%), SUI (+314%), XRP (+188%), SOL (+113%), DOGE (+99%)

Weekly active traders grew consistently from ~2,694 to ~3,961 over the season. Even during periods of volatility, the predictable reward cycle kept engagement high. Surge continues to foster liquidity depth and market stickiness by aligning trader incentives directly with ecosystem growth.

Season 5 and Beyond: Double Rewards, More Opportunities

Now midway through, Season 5 has doubled the rewards pool to $3M per month - one of the largest on-chain trading incentive programs in the industry - and introduced a simplified reward model:

  • Equal footing for all markets: Boosted markets and complex multipliers are gone - every market and every trader competes on the same terms.
  • Reward mechanics:
    • 75% of rewards ($2.25M) distributed based on trading fees paid.
    • 25% ($750K) allocated for activity on official front-ends (web, iOS, Android).
  • Fully transparent: Rewards calculated by Chaos Labs using on-chain data, distributed via governance at month’s end.
  • No registration: Participation is automatic - all trading activity counts.

This structural shift lowers complexity, increases fairness, and keeps incentives tightly aligned with real trading activity. With more Surge seasons planned, traders have recurring opportunities to:

  • Scale market-making strategies in a competitive environment.
  • Help deepen liquidity and strengthen the dYdX Chain’s market leadership.

To view all active markets on dYdX, visit: dydx.trade.

About the dYdX Foundation

Legitimacy and Disclaimer

Crypto-assets can be highly volatile and trading crypto-assets involves risk of loss, particularly when using leverage. Investment into crypto-assets may not be regulated and may not be adequate for retail investors. Do your own research and due diligence before engaging in any activity involving crypto-assets.

dYdX is a decentralised, disintermediated and permissionless protocol, and is not available in the U.S. or to U.S. persons as well as in other restricted jurisdictions. The dYdX Foundation does not operate or participate in the operation of any component of the dYdX Chain's infrastructure.

The dYdX Foundation’s purpose is to support the current implementation and any future implementations of the dYdX protocol and to foster community-driven growth in the dYdX ecosystem.

The dYdX Chain software (including dYdX Unlimited) is open-source software to be used or implemented by any party in accordance with the applicable license. At no time should the dYdX Chain and/or its software or related components (including dYdX Unlimited) be deemed to be a product or service provided or made available in any way by the dYdX Foundation. Interactions with the dYdX Chain software (including dYdX Unlimited) or any implementation thereof are permissionless and disintermediated, subject to the terms of the applicable licenses and code. Users who interact with the dYdX Chain software, i ncluding dYdX Unlimited (or any implementations thereof) will not be interacting with the dYdX Foundation in any way whatsoever. The dYdX Foundation does not make any representations, warranties or covenants in connection with the dYdX Chain software (or any implementations and/or components thereof, including dYdX Unlimited), including (without limitation) with regard to their technical properties or performance, as well as their actual or potential usefulness or suitability for any particular purpose, and users agree to rely on the dYdX Chain software (or any implementations and/or components thereof, including dYdX Unlimited) “AS IS, WHERE IS”.

Nothing in this post should be used or considered as legal, financial, tax, or any other advice, nor as an instruction or invitation to act by anyone.  Users should conduct their own research and due diligence before making any decisions.  The dYdX Foundation may alter or update any information in this post in the future at its sole discretion and assumes no obligation to publicly disclose any such change. This post is solely based on the information available to the dYdX Foundation at the time it was published and should only be read and taken into consideration at the time it was published and on the basis of the circumstances that surrounded it. The dYdX Foundation makes no guarantees of future performance and is under no obligation to undertake any of the activities contemplated herein.

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