How and Where to Buy DerivaDAO (DDX) – Detailed Guide

What is DDX?

What Is Deriva DAO (DDX)?

Deriva DAO is a decentralized exchange (DEX) for derivatives on Ethereum. It prides itself on offering key performance advantages over other DEXs like a real-time price feed, fast trade resolution, and a competitive fee structure. By being a DAO from the beginning, Deriva DAO’s traders and token holders directly control and govern the platform.

Deriva DAO aims to fill the void at the intersection of trading and blockchain by addressing the problems faced by other centralized and decentralized exchanges. Deriva solves the weak security and potential regulatory issues faced by CEXs by building as a DAO, thereby removing censorship concerns and a single point of failure. It also offers a performant and capital-efficient user experience with an order book model that addresses the liquidity and UX issues of decentralized exchanges. With its off-chain price feeds, matching engine, and liquidation operators, Deriva DAO promises to match the speed and efficiency of centralized exchanges.

Who Are the Founders of Deriva DAO?

Deriva DAO was founded by Aditya Palepu, a Duke alumnus and former algorithmic trader with experience in software engineering. He is supported by a team of nine, including co-founder Frederic Fortier, a San Francisco-based software engineer with over a decade of experience building distributed systems.

Deriva DAO is also supported by an impressive array of investors after closing several rounds for a total of $2.7 million. On the investor list are names such as Polychain Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Electric Capital, Dragonfly Capital Partners, CMS Holdings, Three Arrows Capital, Calvin Liu (the strategy lead of Compound), and crypto researcher Phil Daian.

What Makes Deriva DAO Unique?

Deriva DAO aims to stand out from the DEX crowd by utilizing a unique architecture. Unlike other exchanges, Deriva DAO handles trading and other exchange-related transactions not on a public blockchain but its DerivaDEX operator network. The DAO manages two tranches of staked insurance funds from its insurance mining program and organic insurance funds from its exchange fees on this L2 in order to backstop traders against auto-deleveraging.

This custom layer-two solution allows Deriva to compete with CEXs on speed and cost. High-frequency trading is only possible if sub-second transaction finality is guaranteed, which Deriva achieves through its custom L2. Moreover, users do not have to bother with high Ethereum gas fees in this case.

Using this architecture, Deriva focuses on enabling the core functionality of a centralized exchange in a non-custodial manner. All funds are custodied and secured by the Ethereum network. In contrast to other L2 solutions like zk-rollups or optimistic rollups, the centralized order sequencer has no discretion over the order flow on Deriva (like they would on a CEX) and users don’t suffer from long wait times for on-chain transactions (in case of optimistic rollups).

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Check out Idex (IDEX) — a decentralized exchange for trading futures.

Read our deep dive about decentralized liquidity pools.

Get the latest crypto news and latest trading insights with the CoinMarketCap blog.

How Many Deriva DAO (DDX) Coins Are There in Circulation?

The total supply of DDX is 100 million. 50% is emitted as part of the genesis supply, and 50% will be emitted over ten years as part of the liquidity mining supply. DDX has the following token allocation:

  • 34,005,404 DDX from the genesis supply are allocated to the team and DerivaDAO foundation. 21,263,737 are unlocked upon network launch.
  • 15,334,596 DDX from the genesis supply are allocated to investors on a one-year linear schedule.
  • 660,000 DDX from the genesis supply are allocated to advisors.460,000 DDX on a two-year linear schedule, 200,000 on schedules of three months or less.
  • 2,500,000 DDX from the liquidity mining supply will be emitted linearly over one year as part of the insurance mining program
  • The remaining 47,500,000 DDX will be emitted over ten years

How Is the Deriva DAO Network Secured?

Deriva DAO’s smart contracts have been audited by Quantstamp and found to be of high quality. The protocol is secured by Ethereum, one of the most popular blockchains for DAOs and secured by a proof-of-work consensus mechanism that requires miners to mine new Ether. A set of decentralized nodes validates transactions and secures the Ethereum blockchain.

Its custom L2 solution is a purpose-built sidechain of operators executing code within trusted execution environments. This guarantees that code within this environment cannot be tempered with, and executions in this environment can be proven. On its sidechain, Deriva utilizes Raft and a checkpoint consensus mechanism. In Raft, operators ensure that orders and other exchange transactions are valid by relaying a hash of the entire state of the exchange to Ethereum.

Where Can You Buy Deriva DAO (DDX)?

DDX is available on Coinbase Exchange, Uniswap (V2), Sushiswap, Hoo and CoinEx.

DDX was first tradable on 29th Sep, 2020. It has a total supply of 50,297,306. As of right now DDX has a market capitalization of USD $39,124,306.39. The current price of DDX is $0.391 and is ranked 696 on Coinmarketcap and has recently surged 28.15 percent at the time of writing.

DDX has been listed on a number of crypto exchanges, unlike other main cryptocurrencies, it cannot be directly purchased with fiats money. However, You can still easily buy this coin by first buying USDT from any fiat-to-crypto exchanges and then transfer to the exchange that offers to trade this coin, in this guide article we will walk you through in detail the steps to buy DDX.

Step 1: Register on Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange

You will have to first buy one of the major cryptocurrencies, in this case, USDT (USDT). In this article we will walk you through in details two of the most commonly-used fiat-to-crypto exchanges, Uphold.com and Coinbase. Both exchanges have their own fee policies and other features that we will go through in detail. It is recommended that you try both of them and figure out the one that suits you best.

uphold

Suitable for US traders

Select Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange for details:

DDX

Being one of the most popular and convenient fiat-to-crypto exchanges, UpHold has the following advantages:

  • Easy to buy and trade among multiple assets, more than 50 and still adding
  • Currently more than 7M users worldwide
  • You can apply for UpHold Debit card where you can spend the crypto assets on your account like a normal debit card! (US only but will be in the UK later)
  • Easy to use mobile app where you can withdraw fund to a bank or any other altcoin exchanges easily
  • No hidden fees and any other account fees
  • There are limited buy/sell orders for more advanced users
  • You can easily set up recurring deposits for Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) if you intend to hold cryptos long term
  • USDT, which is one of the most popular USD-backed stablecoins (basically a crypto that is backed by real fiat money so they are less volatile and can be treated almost as the fiat money it's pegged with) is available, this is more convenient if the altcoin you intend to buy has only USDT trading pairs on the altcoin exchange so you don't have to go through another currency conversion while you buy the altcoin.
Show Details Steps ▾
DDX

Type your email and click 'Next'. Make sure you provide your real name as UpHold will need it for account and identity verification. Choose a strong password so that your account isn't vulnerable to hackers.

DDX

You will receive a confirmation email. Open it and click on the link within. You will then be required to provide a valid mobile number to set up two-factor authentication (2FA), it is an extra layer to the security of your account and it is highly recommended that you keep this feature turned on.

DDX

Follow the next step to finish your identity verification. These steps are a bit daunting especially when you are waiting to buy an asset but just like any other financial institutions, UpHold is regulated in most countries such as the US, the UK and the EU. You can take this as a trade-off to using a trusted platform to make your first crypto purchase. Good news is that the whole so-called Know-Your-Customers (KYC) process is now fully automated and it shouldn't take more than 15 minutes to finish.

Step 2: Buy USDT with fiat money

DDX

Once you finished the KYC process. You will be asked to add a payment method. Here you can either choose to provide a credit/debit card or use a bank transfer. You may be charged higher fees depending on your credit card company and the volatile prices when using cards but you will also make an instant purchase. While a bank transfer will be cheaper but slower, depending on the country of your residence, some countries will offer instant cash deposit with low fees.

DDX

Now you are all set, on the 'Transact' screen under the 'From' field, select your fiat currency, and then on the 'To' field choose USDT, click preview to review your transaction and the click confirm if everything looks good... and congrats! You've just made your first crypto purchase.

Step 3: Transfer USDT to an Altcoin Exchange

But we are not done yet, since DDX is an altcoin we need to transfer our USDT to an exchange that DDX can be traded. Below is a list of exchanges that offers to trade DDX in various market pairs, head to their websites and register for an account.

Once finished you will then need to deposit USDT to the exchange from UpHold. After the deposit is confirmed you may then purchase DDX from the exchange view.

Exchange
Market Pair
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DDX/USDT
DDX/USDC
DDX/USDT
DDX/USDC
DDX/USDC

Last Step: Store DDX securely in hardware wallets

Ledger Nano S

Ledger Nano S

  • Easy to set up and friendly interface
  • Can be used on desktops and laptops
  • Lightweight and Portable
  • Support most blockchains and wide range of (ERC-20/BEP-20) tokens
  • Multiple languages available
  • Built by a well-established company found in 2014 with great chip security
  • Affordable price
Ledger Nano X

Ledger Nano X

  • More powerful secure element chip (ST33) than Ledger Nano S
  • Can be used on desktop or laptop, or even smartphone and tablet through Bluetooth integration
  • Lightweight and Portable with built-in rechargeable battery
  • Larger screen
  • More storage space than Ledger Nano S
  • Support most blockchains and wide range of (ERC-20/BEP-20) tokens
  • Multiple languages available
  • Built by a well-established company found in 2014 with great chip security
  • Affordable price

If you are planning to keep("hodl" as some may say, basically misspelt "hold" which get popularised over time) your DDX for a considerable long time, you may want to explore ways of keeping it safe, although Binance is one of the safest cryptocurrency exchange there had been hacking incidents and funds were lost. Because of the very nature of the wallets in exchanges, they will be always online("Hot Wallets" as we call them), therefore exposing certain aspects of vulnerabilities. The safest way of storing your coins to date is always putting them into a type of "Cold Wallets", where the wallet will only have access to the blockchain(or simply "go online") when you send out funds, reducing the chances of hacking incidents. A paper wallet is a type of free cold wallet, it's basically an offline-generated pair of public and private address and you will have it written somewhere, and keep it safe. However, it is not durable and is susceptible to various hazards.

Hardware wallet here is definitely a better option of cold wallets. They are usually USB-enabled devices that store the key information of your wallet in a more durable way. They are built with military-level security and their firmware are constantly maintained by their manufacturers and thus extremely safe. Ledger Nano S and Ledger Nano X and are the most popular options in this category, these wallets cost around $50 to $100 depending on the features they are offering. If you are holding your assets these wallets are a good investment in our opinion.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I buy DDX with cash?

There is no direct way to buy DDX with cash. However, you can use marketplaces such as LocalBitcoins to first purchase USDT, and finish the rest of the steps by transferring your USDT to respective AltCoin exchanges.

LocalBitcoins is a peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange. It is a marketplace where users can buy and sell Bitcoins to and from each other. Users, called traders, create advertisements with the price and the payment method they want to offer. You can choose to buy from sellers from a certain nearby region on the platform. is after all a good place to go to buy Bitcoins when you can't find your desired payment methods anywhere else. But prices are usually higher on this platform and you have to do your due diligence to avoid getting scammed.

Are there any quick ways to buy DDX in Europe?

Yes, in fact, Europe is one of the easiest places to buy cryptos in general. There are even online banks which you can simply open an account and transfer money to exchanges such as Coinbase and Uphold.

Are there any alternative platforms to buy DDX or Bitcoin with credit cards?

Yes. is also a very easy to use platform for buying Bitcoin with credit cards. It is an instant cryptocurrency exchange that allows you to exchange crypto fast and buy it with a bank card. Its user interface is very easy to use and the buying steps are pretty self-explanatory.

Read more on DerivaDAO's fundamentals and current price here.

Latest News for DDX

DerivaDEXa year ago
Happy holidays! The current https://t.co/O50qgt45go testnet deployment has passed 4,000 checkpoints of continuous… https://t.co/TXmN4o8Dv4
DerivaDEXa year ago
RT @DDX_Official: The public ‘beta’ testnet has crossed 3,000 checkpoints— a record for longevity of a continuous deployment!
DerivaDEXa year ago
RT @DDX_Official: Want to see how it's going? visit https://t.co/e4gJMd7MdC for more detailed information!
DerivaDEXa year ago
The public ‘beta’ testnet has crossed 3,000 checkpoints— a record for longevity of a continuous deployment! https://t.co/CUSax83Ysa
DerivaDEXa year ago
@leelina2022 @DerivaDEXfaucet Sent!
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