New Asset Listing Group
New Asset Listing Group
Summary
The New Asset Listing Group aims to form a workstream for adding new markets to dYdX. The process is spearheaded by Chaos Labs’ new asset scoring tool, which will be released soon. The group will use this tool to determine which assets to prioritize for listing, in addition to collecting feedback from all relevant stakeholders. The goal is to list new assets more quickly and with input from the dYdX community.
Motivation
Listing new assets is a well-known growth strategy used by exchanges to attract new users and increase trading volumes. We believe dYdX will need to increase its listing frequency to remain competitive.
Today, asset listings are run by the dYdX Trading team. We should note there is an existing process for community members to request new assets to be listed, but in practice, since the work of listing a new asset is rigorous, community members haven’t engaged in the process yet.
We believe that assigning this responsibility to a working group is the best solution to growing asset listings. Moreover, the existing process is too arduous for one-off listings. By creating a working group that lists new assets in batches, dYdX can have a reliable process for listing new assets quickly.
Process
Each epoch (28 days), the group will determine a list of assets to be added to the Stakware Executor in the next epoch.
We will consider assets based on the following inputs:
- Score on the Chaos tool
- Market Maker feedback on liquidity provision
- Community requests in Forum polls
- Market developments and current trends
- Opinions from the dYdX Trading team
Upon completing the process, the group will share the new asset(s) in a Forum post for community feedback. This post will be followed by a Snapshot vote to confirm community support for the asset(s).
If the Snapshot passes, the group can move forward with an on-chain vote (Starkware Executor) to add the asset(s) to the smart contracts. We should note that adding assets to the Starkware Executor does not guarantee listing. Since the dYdX Trading team has exclusive access to listing new assets to the exchange, they will be tasked with adding new assets on the front end.
Success
The community can measure the success of this group through the following KPIs:
- Number of assets listed per epoch
- Volume traded on new assets in the following epochs
- Fees earned from new assets listed
By holding the group accountable to the number of assets listed and subsequent volume traded, the community can be sure the group is adding value to dYdX.
Evolution
Today, the group is launching with Reverie and Chaos Labs building the workflow, writing documentation, and iterating on initial implementations. In terms of responsibilities, Chaos Labs is developing the tooling and leading its implementation while Reverie is managing coordination and processes in preparation for community onboarding. Reverie will be submitting all snapshots and on-chain proposals for the time being.
Once the workflow is polished after a few process iterations, our hope is new community members will step up and take an active role in this process. To that end, community members will be given the opportunity to apply for a position in the group and receive delegation to submit proposals.
References
Here are links to previous discussions on this topic:
Shouldn't asset listings be moving towards being completely controlled by governance? Having an on-chain vote that the core team promises to implement isn't trustless at all. Markets should be added at the speed governance wishes to push them through. I imagine it can't be that difficult to create support_market() functions that a governance proxy contract can call via on-chain vote. This is practically how every other DEX (even the risk-averse ones) operates. Is this something that is planned for V4?
We are more than happy to support both the idea of a token listing group as well as providing feedback and support when needed and within our capacity!
We also echo the importance of prioritizing listing tokens with high volume perps and granting the ability of the token listing group to list hot markets with speed
There are two obvious ways that first come to mind to achieve this:
- The community grants the token listing group full authority to quickly push a listing based on subjective opinion
- Introduce a simple token KPI based on tier 1 exchange listings
e.g. a token can be pushed for listing if: 1) it's scheduled to go live on 2+ T1 exchanges or 2) it's already listed on 2+ T1 exchanges
Where tier 1 exchanges incl. Binance, FTX, Coinbase, Kucoin (or what ever the community deems T1)
excellent offer, 5 assets per month is a good rate.
Seems like a good process, and also a factor could be what the competition does. If Binance, FTX, and Coinbase all list a "hot" token, then we don't want to be left behind.
Of course it's even better to list it first, and have them have to play catch up, but it will certainly help dYdX compete if it can add tokens faster.
And would not be a crime to remove more obscure ones that have very low volume, although that is perhaps not as much of a priority.
Agreed! As Antonio mentioned above as well, tracking activity and volumes across other exchanges will be a big factor in choosing the assets to list.
Removing an asset could make sense if we feel like it negatively impacts the protocol in any way. Otherwise, we may as well keep it up in case the asset suddenly becomes popular.
~ Personal thoughts as community member ~
Thanks for putting this together. Generally I think this is a great idea to have a committee responsible for this.
I'd also pose an additional value to shoot for be speed of addition of a market. One of the most important things in market listings is being as fast as possible to add new, hot markets (eg APE, DOGE back in the day, etc). Obviously it is harder for a DEX to move as fast on market additions, but we should aim to move as fast as possible with them
And then as a heuristic for deciding which markets to add, I would also pose trading volume of that market on leading perpetuals exchanges as a main indicator. We're still at the point where we have significantly fewer markets than say FTX or Binance, so adding markets they have had success with is a good place to start
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Please reconsider adding new markets with very low volume. There are more than 10 markets with <$1m trading volume. Clearly no demand for retail traders. It just promotes wash trading for trade mining manipulate trading league pnl.
CELO is a great example of this.
Appreciate the comments!
Agreed on the importance of catching market tides around individual assets. It may make sense for the group to develop an expedited process that enables one-off listings outside of the regular batch schedule. We'll still be time-constrained to some of the standard processes (e.g. Starkware priority on-chain vote), but I think a lot can be trimmed to push within a couple of weeks.
One possible barrier here is the index pricing feed. If we're early to list ahead of other venues, I imagine we may struggle to find a reliable index feed. Would be interested in hearing thoughts around this!
Absolutely, volume on centralized and competing perp venues will play a big role in the equation.
Hey Reverie team, this is an awesome enhancement to the asset listing process! Definitely looking forward to the tools and community input. Also would love to be part of the community working group as well! :)
In the meanwhile, is it possible to shed more light on the process (i.e. the extract you posted below):
"
- Score on the Chaos tool
- Market Maker feedback on liquidity provision
- Community requests in Forum polls
- Market developments and current trends
- Opinions from the dYdX Trading team
"
Has the framework been organised on how to go about acquiring these inputs? Alternatively, the risk analysis burrow can document/draft a simple structure to kickstart it!
hey, awesome thanks for the feedback, looking forward to working with you on this!
I can go over in more detail how each point is handled to explain the process:
- This tool will be released shortly and will come with more detail from Chaos, but it basically leverages all the possible open information (e.g. market cap, volume, liquidity, audits, sentiment, etc..) to give assets a standardized score. Chaos will upload new tokens to the tool at the request of the Working Group.
- The group is in direct communication with existing Market Makers to receive immediate feedback on tokens that are in consideration. This is make things more efficient.
- The community will have an opportunity to request new assets for adding to the Tool and for Group consideration in every Epoch through the forum post that's used to discuss the new assets being listed. The group will collect all of these and review.
- This mostly translates through requests, but the Group will also be reviewing activity in the space to see if a new asset has been released or if an existing non-listed asset is getting a lot of attention in the markets (e.g. big uptick in volume because a new development)
- Again, the group has direct communication with the team to keep things more efficient, where feedback is shared.
Hope this helps!