dYdX Chain API: Documentation, SDKs and Integrations

Unlike version v3, dYdX Chain (v4) is a fully independent layer-1 blockchain built on the Cosmos SDK. There is no centralized order-matching server: the order book lives in the memory of the validator network. This means a paradigm shift for developers.

→ More about the dYdX Chain architecture

Two layers of interaction:

• Indexer API (reading): Specialized servers that index the blockchain and expose REST and WebSocket APIs (candles, order books, trade history) for fast operation without loading RPC nodes.
• RPC/gRPC (writing): Orders (placing, canceling) are blockchain transactions. You must sign them locally and submit them to validators (gas-free).

Thanks to zero gas fees for placing and canceling orders, dYdX Chain is ideal for sophisticated algorithmic strategies:

• Funding Rate Arbitrage: Delta-neutral strategies between dYdX and CEXs (e.g., Binance) using USD quotes.
• High-frequency market making (HFT): The validators' in-memory order book allows placing and canceling dozens of orders per second.
• Liquidation hunting: Analyzing Indexer Price to capture market imbalances during forced position closures.

→ dYdX on-chain statistics and metrics

On dYdX v4, the developer onboarding process differs significantly from classic exchanges:

1. Subaccount derivation: You connect your Ethereum wallet to dYdX, and via cryptographic signature it generates a dydx... address (Cosmos format) and the subaccount's mnemonic phrase.
2. Key export: From the exchange interface (the "Export Secret Phrase" section for API use) you obtain the secret phrase.
3. SDK initialization: In your code you use the official libraries (@dydxprotocol/v4-client-js or v4-web-python-client), pass them the mnemonic, and the SDK handles all the heavy lifting of building Cosmos transactions (MsgPlaceOrder).

Important: Your bot must build and sign every order (transaction) locally before submitting it to a validator node.

dYdX provides a public cluster of Indexers for data retrieval:

Environments reference

• Mainnet Indexer REST: https://indexer.dydx.trade
• Mainnet Indexer WebSocket: wss://indexer.dydx.trade/v4/ws
• Testnet: https://indexer.v4testnet.dydx.exchange — use it for testing strategies.
• Official SDKs: We recommend using the official TypeScript and Python clients, as they automatically parse Protobuf messages and handle RPC requests.

Since orders are submitted as blockchain transactions, errors are most often related to network state or transaction format:

To get started quickly with dYdX Chain, we recommend using the official SDKs:

• Trading bot in Python (v4-client) — Wallet initialization, MsgPlaceOrder signing and submission over gRPC.
• Streaming WebSocket data (TypeScript) — Receiving Orderbook L2 and aggregated trades via the Indexer.
• Integration examples — Code snippets for managing a subaccount's cross margin.

Fetching the list of markets (REST)

No authentication is required for public data. Get the active trading pairs (e.g., `BTC-USD`):

curl -X GET "https://indexer.dydx.trade/v4/markets"

Subscribing to Trades over WebSocket

To receive real-time market data:

URL: `wss://indexer.dydx.trade/v4/ws`

{
  "type": "subscribe",
  "channel": "v4_markets"
}

Node.js: Basic Request to the Indexer API

An example using axios to fetch the current order book for the BTC-USD pair:

const axios = require('axios');

async function getOrderbook() {
  try {
    const response = await axios.get('https://indexer.dydx.trade/v4/orderbooks/perpetualMarket/BTC-USD');
    console.log("Топ заявки Ask:", response.data.asks.slice(0, 5));
  } catch (error) {
    console.error("Ошибка API:", error.response ? error.response.data : error.message);
  }
}

getOrderbook();

Public Market Data

• GET /v4/markets: Market status, price indices, tick size and lot step.
• GET /v4/orderbooks/perpetualMarket/{ticker}: Order book depth.
• GET /v4/candles/perpetualMarket/{ticker}: Historical candlestick data.

Account Data (Requires a Subaccount Address)

• GET /v4/addresses/{address}/subaccounts/{subaccountNumber}: Retrieve the balance, free margin and open positions of a specific subaccount.

Reminder: To send orders and manage your account (writing), you must use an SDK to broadcast Cosmos transactions (Tx) to validators, not the Indexer API.

Market Making with Hummingbot

For algo traders who want to run market making without writing low-level code, Hummingbot ships a fully functional connector for dYdX v4 (dYdX Chain). You can configure the bot for Pure Market Making or Cross-Exchange Arbitrage. The Hummingbot connector already works with Cosmos transactions under the hood; all you need to do is feed it your subaccount's secret mnemonic through its secure interface.