Decentralized trading platform dYdX, focused on perpetual contracts, is venturing into prediction markets, allowing users to leverage trade on the outcomes of binary events.

According to CoinDesk, dYdX CEO Charles d’Haussy stated that dYdX will launch perpetual futures based on prediction markets, highlighting that decentralized finance (DeFi) needs to offer unique services to differentiate itself from centralized platforms. He believes prediction markets offer a chance to bring DeFi back into the spotlight and also revealed the exchange's plans to explore forex and index markets.

Prediction markets allow investors to bet on the outcome of specific events, ranging from sports matches and financial asset prices to political events and even weather. Augur, launched in 2018, was the first project in this prediction market concept space, but it failed to gain significant traction due to high fees and low liquidity on the Ethereum blockchain at the time. PolyMarket currently stands as the leader in on-chain prediction markets, exceeding $450 million in trading volume in August 2024. dYdX, according to DefiLlama data, has a trading volume of $21.2 billion.

dYdX's entry into prediction markets is part of its dYdX Unlimited upgrade, scheduled to launch later this year, touted as the biggest blockchain upgrade to date. This upgrade, as previously reported by Zombit, will introduce features such as permissionless listing markets and a highly liquid liquidity pool called MegaVault.