GMX

What GMX does

GMX is a decentralized perpetual futures exchange that has operated as a DAO on open, permissionless public chains since 2021. The protocol enables non-custodial leveraged perpetual trading — up to 100x — with no KYC, no deposit requirements, and no custody of user funds; traders connect their own wallets (MetaMask, Rabby, Coinbase Wallet, Trust Wallet, OKX Wallet, Ledger) and trade directly from them. Instead of an order book, GMX executes trades against a dynamically balanced liquidity pool, which it says enables positions over $50M with reduced price impact and, in some cases, positive price impact for the trader. Liquidity is sourced from users depositing assets such as WBTC, ETH, and USDC into GM (single-market) or GLV (stablecoin-only, auto-diversifying) vaults, with liquidity providers receiving 63% of trading and liquidation fees and historically earning up to ~35–46% APR.

The platform's technology stack combines Chainlink Data Streams for sub-second decentralized oracle pricing (securing over $56B in V2 volume), Chaos Labs oracles for price aggregation against manipulation, and — following a 75.5% DAO governance vote in April 2025 — LayerZero as its cross-chain messaging layer, enabling expansion to 125+ chains. GMX V2 launched on Arbitrum and Avalanche in August 2024, and the protocol has since expanded to Base, BNB, Ethereum, Solana, and MegaETH (its eighth chain, March 2026), where it introduced the GLV stablecoin-only vault. The protocol is composable with 100+ DeFi integrations including Pendle, Dolomite, Radiant, Compound, Venus, Abracadabra, Beefy, and Silo Finance. The $GMX token provides governance rights via Snapshot voting and staking rewards.

GMX generates revenue through trading fees, liquidation fees, and swap fees on perpetual trades across its supported chains, retaining ~37% of fees after the 63% LP share. Cumulative notional volume has reached $374B since launch with 745,000 traders, $59M open interest, and $145M in available liquidity. The protocol has explicitly avoided VC funding and operates as a community-owned DAO; a 2025 governance proposal advanced performance-based CEO compensation in GMX tokens. Distribution is entirely self-serve and product-led, driven by community channels (230K Twitter followers, 6K Discord, 10K Telegram, 2K Substack), wallet-level integrations, and a referral program offering a 10% trading fee discount via code 'PRO'.

Name

GMX

Legal name

GMX (Decentralized Autonomous Organization)

Website

https://gmx.io

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Short description

GMX is a non-custodial decentralized perpetual futures exchange, operating as a DAO across 8 blockchain networks since 2021. It serves crypto traders and liquidity providers by executing up to 100x leveraged trades against a dynamic liquidity pool, with no KYC or deposits required.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Decentralized Perpetual Exchange

NAICS

Securities and Commodity Exchanges (523210), Securities and Commodity Exchanges (52321), Other Investment Pools and Funds (5259)

SIC

Security & Commodity Brokers, Dealers, Exchanges & Services (6200), Commodity Contracts Brokers & Dealers (6221)

akta.pro primary industry

Perpetuals & Derivatives DEXs (FSADABAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Perpetual Futures (Perps) Venues & Protocols (FSADAGAA), Derivatives Trading Venues (perps, futures, options) (FSAPADAE), DEX Liquidity Provision & Market-Making Protocols (FSADABAI)

Keywords

• Decentralized exchange
• Perpetual futures
• Liquidity pools
• DeFi protocol
• On-chain trading

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Trading Fees: GMX generates revenue through trading fees charged on perpetual futures trades. Liquidity providers receive 63% of all trading and liquidation fees. The protocol retains the remainder.
2. Liquidation Fees: 63% of all liquidation fees generated when positions are liquidated flow to liquidity providers. The protocol captures a share of these fees.
3. Swap Fees: Fees generated from token swaps within the GMX platform, contributing to yield for liquidity providers.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

GMX is a non-custodial, decentralized perpetual futures exchange that executes trades against a dynamically balanced liquidity pool rather than traditional order books. It offers up to 100x leverage on perpetual contracts across multiple blockchain networks, with sub-second Chainlink oracle price feeds and no deposit or KYC requirements. Liquidity providers earn yield from trading fees, liquidation fees, and swap fees by depositing assets into GM Pools or the auto-diversified GLV vault.

Product overview

GMX is a decentralized, permissionless, non-custodial perpetual exchange platform that has been live since 2021. The platform operates as a unified protocol combining a perpetual futures trading engine with a dynamic liquidity pool system. Its core product portfolio consists of: GMX (the governance and staking token), GLV (the GMX Liquidity Vault — a stablecoin-only auto-diversifying vault), GM Pools (single-market liquidity pools offering targeted returns), and the core GMX Perpetual Trading interface offering up to 100x leverage across multiple blockchain networks. A referral program provides fee discounts. The protocol is multichain, deployed on Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, BNB Chain, Ethereum, Solana, and MegaETH, and is governed by GMX token holders via DAO governance.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• GMX Perpetual Trading GMX's core non-custodial perpetual futures exchange offering up to 100x leverage trading with guaranteed on-chain liquidity, sub-second Chainlink oracle price feeds, support for numerous assets, and no deposit requirements. Total volume exceeds $374B with 745K traders and $59M open interest.
• GLV (GMX Liquidity Vault) The GMX Liquidity Vault (GLV) is a stablecoin-only liquidity vault that auto-diversifies across markets for a hands-off yield strategy, earning auto-compounded yield from perp trading fees, swap fees, and liquidity token buy/sell fees. Currently offering approximately 26.68% APR.
• GM Pools (GMX Market Pools) GM (GMX Market) pools provide single-market exposure for targeted returns, allowing liquidity providers to choose concentrated liquidity positions. Both GM and GLV options historically outperform standard LP benchmarks, with GM pools offering approximately 46.38% APR.
• GMX (Governance Token) The GMX token serves as the protocol's native cryptocurrency for staking rewards and governance rights, enabling holders to participate in protocol governance via Snapshot voting and earn a share of trading fees.
• GMX V2 GMX V2 is the second version of the protocol featuring a dynamic liquidity pool architecture replacing traditional order books, enabling deep liquidity for large positions over $50M with reduced or positive price impact, powered by Chainlink Data Streams for sub-second price updates.
• GMX Referral Program GMX's referral program offering a 10% trading fee discount when using the referral code 'PRO', allowing users to share savings with referred traders.
• GMX Express (One-Click Trading) Frictionless trading feature enabling one-click trading that sidesteps blockchain congestion, providing a seamless trading experience for users.
• GMX Developer API & SDKs Developer APIs and SDKs for building on top of the GMX protocol. Developers can interact directly with GMX smart contracts or use available APIs and SDKs to plug into trading, liquidity, or data flows.

Quantifiable outcome

• $374B total notional trading volume since 2021 launch
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration24 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• LayerZerocoreTechnology or Integration · 14 April 2025GMX selected LayerZero as its messaging partner for multichain expansion with a 75.5% majority governance vote. The integration enables GMX to expand to 125+ chains with full ownership of all contracts and security, fast zero-slippage transfers, and battle-tested rails already trusted by billions of dollars in assets.
• ChainlinkcoreTechnology or IntegrationGMX uses Chainlink Data Streams and price feeds for sub-second price updates and liquidation protection. Chainlink Data Streams have secured over $56B in volume for GMX V2 protocol across Arbitrum and Avalanche. Also uses Chainlink oracles for GMX DAO compensation plan price verification.
• Chaos LabscoreTechnology or IntegrationGMX uses Chaos Labs decentralized oracles alongside Chainlink to aggregate prices from multiple trusted sources and prevent price manipulation for unfair liquidations.
• MegaETHcoreTechnology or IntegrationGMX launched on MegaETH blockchain as its eighth chain deployment in March 2026. MegaETH is the first blockchain with 10-millisecond block times and sequencer-level Chainlink Data Streams integration. This launch introduces GMX's first GLV stablecoin-only liquidity vault.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Perpetual Protocol: Decentralized perpetual exchange using a virtual AMM model; comparable in offering non-custodial leveraged perpetual futures to crypto traders.
• dYdX: Decentralized perpetual futures exchange with on-chain order book; directly competes with GMX for non-custodial perp traders across multiple chains.
• Mango Markets: Solana-based decentralized exchange offering perpetual futures and spot trading; comparable non-custodial derivative product for crypto traders.
• Drift Protocol: Solana-based decentralized perpetual exchange with order book; comparable non-custodial perp product targeting crypto traders seeking leverage.
• ApeX Protocol: Decentralized perpetual exchange on StarkNet offering non-custodial leveraged trading; competes directly with GMX for perp trader wallet share.
• Kwenta: Decentralized perpetuals and synths trading frontend originally built on GMX V1; directly comparable offering for non-custodial leveraged trading.
• Hyperliquid: Fast-growing decentralized perpetual exchange on its own L1 with order book matching; comparable target customer (self-custody perp traders) and competing on execution speed and liquidity.

Broad incumbents

• Synthetix: Decentralized derivatives liquidity protocol offering perpetuals and synthetic assets on Ethereum L2s; broader scope but overlapping perp trading infrastructure.
• BitMEX: Established centralized perpetual futures exchange; comparable perp product offering and target customer (crypto derivatives traders), though custodial model differs.

Emerging players

• Vertex Protocol: Hybrid order book + AMM decentralized exchange offering spot and perpetual futures on Arbitrum; comparable non-custodial perp product targeting similar DeFi users.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/GMX_IO
• GitHubgithub.com/gmx-io

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments1 record

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about GMX