How to start trading on dYdX

1. Create an account

1. On dydx.trade click Connect Wallet at the top right and pick a supported wallet. If you have no wallet, you can use the email or social login option (powered by privy.io), which creates a dYdX Chain wallet with a 24-word seed phrase and asks you to set up two-factor authentication. source ↗
2. With an EVM or Solana wallet you sign two messages the first time: one generates your dYdX Chain wallet from your wallet's key and one verifies compatibility. Cosmos wallets such as Keplr sign one message to verify ownership. source ↗
3. Your dYdX Chain account is controlled by a 24-word secret phrase, which you can export from the menu at the top right. Anyone who knows it can move your funds, so never share it. source ↗

2. Deposit collateral

1. Click Deposit at the top right of the trading panel. Wallet users can deposit from EVM, Solana or Cosmos chains through the built-in flow (powered by Skip): enter the amount, choose Instant or Default for EVM/Solana sources, then confirm in your wallet. source ↗
2. You can also send USDC on the Noble network, directly or from Coinbase, to the Noble address shown; this is the only option for email/social logins. Funds should appear in your dYdX Chain account in about 30 seconds. source ↗
3. Keep the dYdX tab open after submitting a deposit; leaving the site can delay the funds. If a deposit has not arrived after 5 minutes (Instant) or 30 minutes (Standard), track it on the Skip:Go explorer with the transaction hash and contact support via Help > Live Chat. source ↗

3. Open your first position

1. Select a market, choose Market or Limit in the trade box, pick Buy or Sell, and enter an amount or drag the leverage slider. Supported order types are Market, Limit, Stop Market, Stop Limit, Take Profit Market and Take Profit Limit. source ↗
2. To trade with isolated margin, select Isolated under Margin mode; the app moves collateral from your cross account into a separate subaccount. Some markets are isolated-only, and an isolated position opened with a long-term order needs at least 20 USDC of margin or the order fails. source ↗
3. There are no gas fees for trading; you pay maker/taker fees based on your 30-day volume. At the base tier (under $1M) taker is 0.05% and maker 0.01%, and cancelled orders are free. source ↗

4. Know how liquidation works

1. Accounts whose value falls below the maintenance margin requirement can be liquidated, partly or fully, against the order book. The default maximum liquidation penalty is 1.5%, paid to the insurance fund. source ↗
2. Oracle prices, set by the chain's validators, are used to check collateral, decide liquidations and trigger stop and take-profit orders. source ↗
3. If an account goes negative in a fast move, the protocol deleverages it against randomly chosen opposite positions, which can reduce profits on those positions. source ↗

5. Withdraw

1. Click Withdraw at the top right of the trading panel, enter the destination address, choose the network and asset, enter the amount and set slippage. Coinbase is the only centralized exchange that supports Noble USDC withdrawals from dYdX. source ↗
2. There is no minimum withdrawal; destination-chain fees are deducted and the final amount is shown before you confirm. An EVM wallet can only withdraw to EVM chains, Keplr only to Cosmos chains and Phantom only to Solana. source ↗
3. By default Noble USDC withdrawals are rate-limited to the larger of 1% of TVL or $1M per hour and 10% of TVL or $10M per day, and they can be paused for 50 blocks after a chain outage of 5+ minutes. source ↗

6. Common mistakes

1. Funding is calculated hourly from the order book premium against the oracle price; when the perp trades above it longs pay shorts, and below it shorts pay longs. source ↗
2. The number of open orders you can have depends on your account equity; for example 20 USDC allows 1 open order and 100 USDC allows 10. source ↗
3. The dydx.trade front end is not available in restricted places including the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Wallets flagged there are put in close-only mode: you can only cancel orders, reduce positions and withdraw. source ↗

Before you trade

Perpetual futures use leverage: a small price move against you can liquidate your collateral. Start with a small amount and low leverage, and read the venue’s current fee and margin pages, which can change after this guide was checked.