According to what was due to extremely overwhelming demand, derivatives exchange dYdX has canceled its first deposit bonus of $25 to customers.
The controversial $25 first deposit bonus promotion from decentralized cryptocurrency exchange dYdX has terminated, the company has announced, following a wave of criticism over its need for new members to use face recognition software.
The exchange, however, gave no further explanation for why its brief promotional campaign terminated on September 1 “effective immediately,” other than to say that there was “overwhelming demand.”
The promotion in question began on August 31 and gave new customers a $25 incentive if they made a $500 or higher platform deposit.
The only caveat was that they had to consent to a “liveness check” using a webcam to confirm their identity, which some members of the group didn’t like.
After reportedly enrolling thousands of new customers, about 24 hours later, dYdX stated that it will discontinue the program “due to highly overwhelming demand.”
The DEX team did not specify the duration of the promotional campaign when it was first announced, but it later admitted that it “really overestimated the amount of interest the campaign gained.”
Notably, dYdX did not address the backlash from the community in its most recent tweet, but in a previous post, it reiterated its use of facial recognition technology and explained that it was solely done to prevent users from opening multiple accounts to receive the bonus.
Others have expressed reservations about the platform using such technologies in the first place, and some in the community don’t buy it, saying that the cancellation was mostly the result of the debate.
Despite previously being a strong supporter of dYdX, Yearn Finance columnist Adam Cochran tweeted to his 153,100 followers that he will be leaving the platform and selling his DYDX tokens until he sees “real changes there.”
“dYdX doubles down on claiming that this is ok by saying it’s just if you want the reward program. In their eyes your data privacy is a commodity and an acceptable risk if they get growth.”
He continued, “I’m hopeful for a decentralized market for criminals, but I’m concerned about this conduct and believe a company culture that places a premium on expansion over users is risky.
