GMX review
GMX prices trades against pooled liquidity and Chainlink oracles rather than a book, so its cost structure looks like a swap: an open/close fee that varies with the balance of open interest, plus borrow and price impact. It is the cheapest venue in the series for a trader who systematically takes the lighter side.
app.gmx.io
Perpetual futures are leveraged: a small move against you can liquidate your position. Only trade what you can afford to lose.
- Trading fees
- 0.04% to 0.06% per open or closeThere is no maker/taker split: the position fee is 0.04% when your trade reduces the imbalance between long and short open interest and 0.06% when it increases it, charged on open, close, increase and decrease. TradFi markets have their own rates (GOLD, SILVER and oil trade at 0.01%/0.02% during on-hours). Price impact, hourly borrow fees and swaps are billed on top.
- New-user perk
- 5% or 10% off opening and closing fees depending on the tier of the code you usevia a referral link (not offered here yet)
- Max leverage
- up to 100×132 perp markets
- Identity check
- No KYC
- Custody
- Non-custodial, wallet only
- Settles on
- Arbitrum (GMX V2 contracts) · USDC, USDT, WETH
- Where it runs
- Web
- 30-day volume
- $22,518.0MDefiLlama protocol page, 28/09/2026, reported volume. DefiLlama publishes no normalized figure for GMX, so the $22.5B cannot be compared to an organic-activity estimate.
Who it’s for
Pick it if
You want oracle pricing with no spread hunting, on Arbitrum, and you trade the lighter side of the market.
Skip it if
You need a real order book with limit orders sitting in a book, or a fast path to an affiliate partnership.
Strengths / Limits
Strengths
- $22.5B of perp volume over 30 days across five chains, with 63% of trading, liquidation, borrow and swap fees going to liquidity providers.
- 132 markets, 130 of them listed, spanning crypto, gold, silver and oil, with a multichain GMX Account for funding from Ethereum, Base or BNB Chain.
- Referral rewards of 5% to 15% of opening and closing fees, claimable per market in the market's collateral token.
- Oracle pricing means liquidations happen at fair market prices rather than at momentary spread spikes.
Limits
- A GMX V1 pool was drained for $42M in July 2025 by a reentrancy attack; about $40M was later returned.
- The 0.04% rate only applies if your trade improves the balance of open interest; otherwise you pay 0.06%.
- Tiers 2 and 3 of the referral program are gated behind weekly volume thresholds and a manual Telegram request.
What it offers
- Order bookNo
- Cross marginNot documented
- Spot tradingYes
- Vaults / copy vaultsYes
- Copy tradingNot documented
- Stocks, gold or forexYes
- Points programNo
- APIYes
- Mobile appNot documented
- Telegram botNot documented
“Not documented” means we found no official page, not that the feature is missing.
How to start safely
- Open the official app
Type app.gmx.io yourself or use a bookmark: phishing copies of perp exchanges are common.
- Deposit a small amount first
Send a test deposit of the collateral the exchange accepts, on the chain it documents, before moving more.
- Set leverage and a stop before the order
Pick isolated margin for a new trade, keep leverage low, and place the stop-loss with the order, not after.
- Watch funding and liquidation price
Funding is paid regularly while a position is open, and the liquidation price moves closer as leverage rises.
Security record
2025-07 — A reentrancy attack drained about $42M from a GMX V1 pool on Arbitrum. DefiLlama records $40M returned; V1 trading is no longer active. Source
2022-09 — A stale-price arbitrage on GMX V1 cost about $565,000, classified as market manipulation. Source
Official domains: gmx.io
Sources
Checked on 27 Sept 2026. Facts change quickly: re-check prices and fees in the app.
GMX0.04% to 0.06% per open or close · app.gmx.io
Open