What's good crypto fam. This article will be all of the need-to-know information as well as a bit of my personal experience over the past few weeks using the dYdX decentralized exchange. If you don't have the time or care to read the whole article, let me break it down for you: If you wish to trade with leverage in a decentralized environment that is super user-friendly, this is the one for you. 

Just remember to never trade more than you are willing to lose. This is not financial advice yadda yadda do your own research and smile at strangers.

https://dydx.exchange/

Introduction

I don't like to mess around so I will try to keep things as succinct and as to-the-point as possible. 

The pairs that can be traded on dYdX are as follows:

ETH/DAI | ETH/USDC | DAI/USDC

There is no KYC and no registration necessary. All you have to do is connect your wallet and deposit some funds which will take a little bit of gas - depending on the amount obviously. The different wallets that are currently supported are: MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, Ledger, and WalletConnect.

*Full disclosure: the above links for Coinbase and Ledger are my personal affiliate links. I will name my third-born child after you if you use these links to sign up. It is no cost to you but I do get a reward if you choose to sign up via those links.*

You can use up to 4x leverage on both longs and shorts. This is actually good for the entire crypto community because when trades are liquidated, the money doesn't just end up in the business/exchange owners' pockets. As far as I know (but don't quote me on this) liquidations go straight back into the liquidity pool which helps provide capital for lending/borrowing as well as market makers.

dYdX can also be used as a simple trading exchange (obviously with the same pairs) in which you can execute Market and Limit orders. You can also create stop orders when simply trading and also when trading with leverage.

One of the best parts about dYdX is that you earn interest on your funds from the second they are deposited to the second until you withdraw them. AND that interest compounds. There is a God after all.

Current interest rates (APR):

ETH - 0.03% | USDC - 3.50% | DAI - 8.80%

My Experience

I have been using dYdX for little over two weeks so far and have only had one technical issue. That will be detailed below.

The user interface and simplicity of use is incredible and would be very nice for beginners yet is not too basic for more advanced traders.

I have done several leveraged trades using the ETH/DAI pair including both longing and shorting and the entire process is very nicely laid out and easy to understand compared to other leverage trading options out there. Very streamlined and user-friendly.

The one technical issue I had was caused by an "improper triggering of some stop-loss orders." This was a pretty big deal for me at the time and I was almost going to be done with the platform right there.

Naturally I contacted support and got my first response 8 minutes after. Within 30 minutes, my issue was solved and I was given a full refund for the amount that I would have gained if my order was not closed at that time. So I made out with my profit AND the staff member sent me a little extra ETH "for the inconvenience" which I greatly appreciated.

That customer service right there is the reason why I have continued to use dYdX since that incident and I can confidently say that nothing bad or irregular has happened since then.

Conclusion

With everything said and done I would highly recommend dYdX to anyone who is seeking to trade with leverage while keeping things decentralized. Not to mention the continual compound interest as well. That's what I call the cherry on top.

Be careful when trading with leverage. 100% would recommend using a stop-loss. I appreciate any type of feedback or comments regarding my writing.

https://dydx.exchange/

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