DYdX Crypto Derivatives Exchange Successfully Expands into Canadian Market
dYdX concludes disputed promotion, citing 'overwhelming demand'
dYdX, a decentralized crypto derivatives exchange, has announced the end of its short-lived and contentious $25 initial deposit bonus promotion, following a wave of criticism over its facial recognition requirements for new members.
The exchange, on the other hand, simply stated that its short-lived promotional campaign terminated on Thursday "effective immediately" due to "overwhelming demand."
Due to extremely overwhelming demand of the $25 deposit bonus promotion, we are ending the campaign, effective immediately. Thank you to the many thousands of new users that onboarded to dYdX today. We truly underestimated the amount of interest the campaign garnered.
— dYdX (@dYdX) September 1, 2022
The promotion in question went live on Wednesday, offering new customers a $25 incentive if they invested $500 or more into the platform.
The only caveat was that they had to agree to a "liveness check" via webcam to authenticate their identity, which irritated several members of the group.
After allegedly onboarding thousands of new customers, dYdX announced about 24 hours later that it will discontinue the campaign "due to highly overwhelming demand."
Give me my $25 dollars pic.twitter.com/5n4r5GA6os
— King Ethan (@Kr3py) September 2, 2022
During the first release, the DEX team did not specify how long the promotional campaign would go, but noted that it "really underestimated the amount of interest the campaign garnered."
dYdX, for example, made no note of the community backlash in its most recent tweet, but doubled down on its use of face recognition software in an earlier post, claiming that it was simply used to ensure customers weren't claiming the bonus on multiple accounts.
Some in the community are skeptical, claiming that the cancellation was mostly due to the dispute, while others have expressed concerns over the platform's use of such tools in the first place.
So you’re telling me you guys manage a multi million dollar protocol, but forgot about sign up promo game theory?
— Adrianna Mendez (@ampersandarrow) September 2, 2022
Yearn.finance contributor Adam Cochran tweeted to his 153,100 followers that, despite previously being a strong supporter of dYdX, he will be leaving the platform and selling his DYDX coins until he sees "real improvements there:"
"dYdX doubles down on his claim that this is acceptable, saying it's only if you want the reward program." In their eyes, your data privacy is a commodity that can be traded for growth."
"I'm optimistic about a decentralized perps market, but I'm concerned about this conduct, and I believe a company culture that emphasizes expansion over users is risky," he continued.
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