Can DYDX still be worth looking at? It must be compared with the leading project, HYPE.

Conclusion up front: DYDX is not an air coin, but it’s also not one of those established “blue-chip” tokens you can safely go heavy on with your eyes closed right now. Its real issue isn’t “whether it has a product,” but “in the on-chain perpetual contract race, can it still reclaim market share?”

DYDX was indeed stronger in the past. It ran on real trading volume, generated real protocol fees, and gradually evolved from a pure governance token into ones with clearer token-capture routes—such as staking, fee discounts, and revenue buybacks. So it’s different from many tokens that only tell stories and have no real business.

But when you look at DYDX now, you can’t rely on past accolades alone. The perpetual DEX track has changed. The current track leader must be called out directly: Hyperliquid, whose corresponding token is HYPE. The trading platform behind HYPE is clearly stronger in trading volume, open interest, user activity, and wealth effects. DYDX still has active trading, but based on publicly available data, its track share is already in the low single digits—there’s still a significant gap versus the leading project represented by HYPE.

This determines DYDX’s nature: it’s not a track-leader premium token; it’s an old-school perpetual DEX revenue-recovery type project.

Also, DYDX has a buyback mechanism, but it must be explained clearly here: its buybacks aren’t used to buy back and directly burn. Instead, it uses net protocol revenue to buy back tokens, and then re-stakes them to help secure the network. This mechanism is better than having no buyback and it can reduce short-term circulating-supply pressure, but it can’t be valued assuming “permanent burning” and “strong deflation.” Whether these tokens won’t flow back into the market long-term depends on staking, governance, and subsequent rules.

So my core understanding of DYDX is this: it has a product, historical revenue, and a buyback-staking closed loop—but its current track share and revenue haven’t been repaired yet. It’s worth studying, but it should only be treated as a high-risk recovery position, not as a deterministic core holding.

What can truly change the DYDX assessment isn’t a short-term rebound, but three things: trading volume picks back up, protocol fees keep recovering, and the buyback-staking scale gets larger—while the gap with Hyperliquid/HYPE starts to shrink.

In the public section, I only provide core judgments: DYDX can be tracked, but you can’t put your faith in it. Its opportunity lies in revenue recovery for old-school perpetual DEXs; its risks are share decline, intensifying competition, and buybacks that aren’t destruction. Specific valuation anchors, where to observe, and how to handle positions are expanded in the subscription premium edition.

Risk warning: The above is only my personal research record and does not constitute investment advice. Digital assets are extremely volatile—please control your position size and strictly manage risk.