GMX
GMX is a decentralized spot and perpetuals exchange on Arbitrum, Avalanche and MegaETH, with 100+ crypto and TradFi markets and up to 100x leverage. Trades execute against GM and GLV liquidity pools at Chainlink oracle prices rather than an order book.
Cost: Opening or closing a position costs 0.04% of size if the trade reduces the long/short open-interest imbalance and 0.06% if it increases it, plus price impact on close, hourly borrow and funding fees, and a keeper network fee. A $1,000 buy-and-sell costs about $1.20 in GMX fees.
Sign-up perk: 5% (Tier 1) or 10% (Tier 2/3) off open/close fees.
Checked 2026-10-16 · sources below- Round trip fee
- 0.12% buy + sell, platform fee
- $1,000 buy + sell
- $1.20 $1.14 with sign-up discount
- US availability
- Unverified UK: unverified · EU: unverified
- Custody
- non-custodial
- KYC
- none
- Platforms
- web
- Launched
- 2021-09
Users paid GMX about $5.6M in fees in the 30 days to 2026-10-17 (DefiLlama) — a rough measure of how much it is actually used.
Best for: Traders who want oracle-priced perps on Arbitrum or Avalanche, including gold, oil and US index markets, without an order book.
GMX fees
| Fee | Type | Rate | Applies to | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position open/close fee | platform | 0.06% | Buy and sell | 0.04% when the trade reduces long/short OI imbalance, 0.06% when it increases it. Some TradFi markets use lower on-hours rates (e.g. GOLD, SPY, QQQ 0.01%/0.02%). |
| Price impact | spread | — | Buy and sell | Applied only on close/decrease, based on OI imbalance; can be positive. Negative impact capped per market, 0.5% on majors (BTC, ETH, SOL) up to 10% on thin markets; positive capped at 0.4%. |
| Borrow fee | protocol | — | Buy and sell | Paid hourly by the larger OI side only, priced by pool utilization; typical kink model 45-55%/yr below 75% utilization, 100-130%/yr at 100%. |
| Funding fee | protocol | — | Buy and sell | Adaptive rate between longs and shorts; can be a cost or a credit. |
| Swap fee | protocol | 0.07% | Buy and sell | 0.05% if the swap improves pool balance, 0.07% if not; stablecoin pools 0.005%-0.02%. Only when collateral conversion is needed. |
| Network (execution) fee | network | — | Buy and sell | Covers keeper gas for order execution; unused amount refunded. |
Fee tiers
| Tier | Rate | Requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | 0.06% | default (0.04% when reducing OI imbalance) |
| Referral / EARNED_TRADER_DISCOUNT_5 | 0.057% | 5% discount via Tier 1 referral code, or automatic at $50M lifetime Arbitrum volume |
| Referral / EARNED_TRADER_DISCOUNT_10 | 0.054% | 10% discount via Tier 2/3 referral code, or automatic at $250M lifetime Arbitrum volume |
Perps: taker 0.06%, maker — — GMX has no maker/taker split; the position fee is 0.04% or 0.06% for every order type depending on whether it improves OI balance.
Platform fees only. On-chain network/priority fees, pool (LP) fees and price impact are extra and vary by trade.
Is GMX legit?
Trades settle peer-to-pool through smart contracts; GMX.io states it has no custody of user funds or private keys. An optional GMX Account holds a trading balance on Arbitrum funded from other chains.
Incidents on record
- 2025-07-09: ~$42M exploit of GMX V1 GLP pool on Arbitrum. An attacker used a reentrancy flaw to manipulate GLP pricing and drained about $42 million from the V1 GLP pool. The attacker accepted a 10% white-hat bounty and returned most funds; GMX then compensated affected Arbitrum GLP holders with about $44 million in GLV tokens. Source
Where GMX is available
| Region | Status |
|---|---|
| United States | Unverified |
| United Kingdom | Unverified |
| European Union | Unverified |
GMX.io terms restrict residents of countries the US, UK or EU embargo ('Restricted Territories') and sanctions-listed persons, and forbid VPN circumvention. They do not name the US, UK or EU themselves as restricted, and do not state they are supported. (source)
We report what the venue's own terms say. Don't use a VPN to get around restrictions; venues can freeze accounts that do.
Pros and cons
Pros
- 100+ markets, including gold, silver, oil, natural gas, SPY and QQQ, tradeable 24/7 with up to 100x leverage.
- Trades that reduce the long/short imbalance pay 0.04% instead of 0.06%, and price impact can be positive.
- Negative price impact is capped per market, at 0.5% on BTC, ETH and SOL.
- Referral codes give traders 5% or 10% off open/close fees.
Cons
- Holding costs include hourly borrow fees, priced from 45-55%/yr below 75% utilization on typical markets.
- GMX V1's GLP pool lost about $42 million to an exploit in July 2025 before funds were returned.
- Thin markets can carry negative price impact caps of up to 10%.
- Every trade pays a keeper network fee on top of the position fee.
Features
perpsspot swapstradfi marketsoracle pricingmultichain accountexpress tradingone-click tradingtwapliquidity pools
Alternatives to GMX
Lighter
Non-US, non-UK retail perps traders who want zero trading fees and can accept slower taker execution than paid accounts.
0%Round trip
Paradex
Non-US traders who place orders manually through a web UI and want zero-fee perps plus options from one margin account.
0%Round trip
Ostium
Traders who want onchain leveraged exposure to stocks, forex, commodities and indices from a self-custodied wallet, outside the US.
0.06%Round trip
Aster
Non-US, non-UK traders who want zero maker fees on order-book perps, very high leverage modes, or privacy-shielded orders.
0.08%Round trip
Head to head
Where GMX ranks
- #4 in Best perp DEXesof 10
- #9 in Best perp DEXes for beginnersof 10
Explainers related to GMX
- What is leverage in crypto trading? (margin, multiples and risk)
- What is liquidation in crypto trading? (how leveraged positions get closed)
- What are perpetual futures (perps)? A trader's explainer
GMX FAQ
Is GMX legit?
GMX is a live, non-custodial perpetuals exchange on Arbitrum, Avalanche and MegaETH. In July 2025 its V1 GLP pool lost about $42 million to a reentrancy exploit; most funds were returned for a 10% bounty and GMX compensated affected GLP holders. V1 trading is now phased out.
What are GMX trading fees?
Opening or closing costs 0.04% of position size if your trade reduces the long/short imbalance and 0.06% if it increases it. Borrow fees, funding, price impact on close and a keeper network fee also apply.
Does GMX have maker and taker fees?
No. GMX prices trades from oracles against liquidity pools, so the same 0.04% or 0.06% position fee applies to market, limit and trigger orders. The rate depends on open-interest balance, not order type.
Which chains does GMX run on?
GMX markets are deployed on Arbitrum, Avalanche and MegaETH. A GMX Account lets you fund an Arbitrum trading balance from Ethereum, Base or BNB Chain, bridged via Stargate and LayerZero.
Sources
Last checked . Fees and terms change often; the venue's own page wins if it disagrees with ours.
- GMX Docs - Fees — checked 2026-10-16
- GMX Docs - Referrals — checked 2026-10-16
- GMX Docs - Intro — checked 2026-10-16
- GMX Docs - Trading overview — checked 2026-10-16
- GMX Docs - Trading on V1 (archived) — checked 2026-10-16
- GMX.io Terms and Conditions — checked 2026-10-16
- The Block - Hacker drains $42 million from GMX — checked 2026-10-16
- The Block - GMX finalizes $44 million plan to compensate GLP holders — checked 2026-10-16
- Arbitrum Blog - GMX in-depth look — checked 2026-10-16