GMX Review: Is it still worthy?

If you’ve been dabbling in the world of crypto lately, chances are you’ve come across the name GMX. It’s been making waves among DeFi enthusiasts, traders and even the casual crypto-curious crowd. But what exactly is GMX, and is it worth your time (and crypto)? Let’s break it down in simple words – no jargon, just a real review of how this platform works and whether it’s as good as everyone says.

What is GMX?

In a nutshell, GMX is a decentralized crypto derivatives exchange. That means you can trade major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and others with leverage, directly from your wallet – no middlemen, no KYC, no centralized thing.

GMX lives on the Arbitrum and Avalanche blockchains, which are known for lightning-fast transactions and low gas fees. It allows users to:

• Trade top assets (ETH, BTC, ARB, SOL) with up to 50x leverage
• Swap assets directly from their wallet
• Earn real yield by staking the GMX token or providing liquidity via GM pools

Its core innovation lies in being DeFi-native yet pro-trader friendly, offering low-cost, slippage-free trading with self-custody.

A Quick Background

GMX officially launched in September 2021, but its development started earlier under the name Gambit. The goal? To create a fully on-chain, transparent, and community-driven trading platform that offers a smooth experience for both beginners and pro traders.

Since then, it has grown significantly, building a loyal community and gaining trust for being a zero slippage and low-fee exchange in the DeFi space. No wonder it’s a favorite for those who want a mix of control, speed and security.

Standout Features of GMX

So what makes GMX stand out in a sea of DEXs? Let’s dive into the features:

1. Zero Slippage Trades:

Most decentralized exchanges use AMMs (automated market makers) that suffer from price slippage, especially during volatile conditions. GMX solves this by using a unique oracle-based system that fetches real-time prices from leading sources like Chainlink, Binance and others. That means what you see is what you get.

2. Leverage Up to 50x:

For adrenaline-loving traders, GMX offers up to 50x leverage on assets like BTC, ETH, LINK, UNI, and a few others. You can long or short these assets using your own crypto, with no need to convert to fiat or use a third-party platform.

3. Multi-Asset Pool (GLP):

This is where things get interesting. GMX has a GLP token, which is a liquidity provider token made up of a basket of assets – ETH, BTC, stablecoins, etc. Traders use this liquidity to execute trades, while liquidity providers earn fees and rewards in return.

4. Staking for Passive Income:

You can stake the native token GMX or GM tokens and earn rewards in ETH or AVAX. The APRs are often attractive and come from real trading fees and not inflationary tokenomics, which is a big plus here.

GMX Review: Security and Audits

GMX’s smart contracts have been rigorously audited by trusted firms such as ABDK and Quantstamp, enhancing transparency and safety. The code is open source, meaning anyone can review it.
While decentralized protocols like GMX typically don’t require a formal license, these audits serve as industry-standard validation of its security protocol.

The Recent 2025 Exploit: GMX V1 Reentrancy Attack

In a significant event on July 9, 2025, GMX V1 contracts were hit by a reentrancy attack, resulting in a loss of over $42 million. The problem came from a reentrancy bug in GMX’s older V1 contracts.
An attacker used a smart contract to repeatedly call a function (executeDecreaseOrder) before it finished running.
This trick let them push up the price in GMX’s liquidity pool from $1.45 to $27 and withdraw far more than they had put in.

Instead of disappearing with all the money, the hacker returned $40 million to GMX, keeping $5 million as a “white-hat” reward. It’s rare in crypto, but this one ended better than most.

GMX’s Fix – V2 Upgrade

GMX quickly moved to V2, adding:

• Separate liquidity pools for each market (GM tokens)
• Stronger contract protections against reentrancy
• Extra checks to block malicious smart contracts from exploiting trader functions

GMX V2: What’s New?

The biggest change in GMX V2 is the shift to GM tokens:

• In V1, there was one liquidity pool called GLP (a basket of assets).
• In V2, GMX uses market-specific liquidity pools with individual GM tokens like GM-ETH, GM-BTC, etc.
  This enables more precise risk management and capital efficiency for liquidity providers.

Other V2 improvements:

• Faster and more accurate oracle pricing
• Isolated markets to reduce risk of cascading liquidations
• Improved execution speeds
• Expanded collateral support (including multi-collateral trading)
• Hardened smart contracts: Reentrancy guards, improved access controls, and better logic flow.
• EOA checks: Preventing contracts from sneaking into functions meant for individual traders.

GMX’s V2 setup makes similar attacks much harder.

GMX Review: Interface and Tools

The GMX interface is simple and user-friendly, with different tabs providing access to essential features. Here’s a breakdown of what each one does:

Dashboard

This is your central hub for tracking:

• Total platform volume
• Fees generated
• Open interest in different tokens
• Total assets in the LP pool

It’s perfect for getting a quick overview of how well GMX is performing and how much revenue it’s generating.

Trade

This is where all the action happens. You’ll find:

• Swap: For instant token exchanges
• Long/Short Positions: Enter trades using leverage, with clear info on:
  • Entry price
  • Liquidation price
  • Fees
  • Profit/Loss in real-time

GMX allows leverage trading up to 50x on popular markets like ETH/USD, BTC/USD, ARB/USD, and SOL/USD.
Daily trading volumes often reach hundreds of millions of dollars, showing active trader participation.
It uses real-time oracle price feeds to ensure zero slippage trades, which is important for accuracy on large positions.
Open interest frequently reaches hundreds of millions, reflecting substantial capital deployed in active trades.

Key insights:

• High leverage access without middlemen
• Reliable oracle pricing even during high volatility

It’s one of the cleanest DEX interfaces out there for leveraged trading.

Pool

View and manage liquidity pools for GM tokens.

• Displays all market-specific GM pools (e.g., GM-ETH, GM-BTC)
• You can provide liquidity to a specific market and earn:
  • Trading fees
  • Borrowing fees from leverage traders
• View metrics like APR, liquidity, utilization, and token balances

GMX V2 uses market-specific GM tokens, such as GM-ETH and GM-BTC, for liquidity.
Liquidity providers can earn annual percentage returns ranging from 20% to 100%, depending on market activity.
Seventy percent of trading and borrowing fees go to GM liquidity providers.
Total value locked across pools is in the hundreds of millions, providing deep liquidity and reduced slippage.

Key insights:

• Choose specific asset pools for tailored exposure
• Earnings are directly linked to market activity

Best for: Liquidity providers wanting market-specific exposure and real yield.

Stake

Staking the GMX token earns you platform revenue in ETH or AVAX, along with escrowed GMX tokens (esGMX).
Staking APR generally ranges from 10% to 50%, based on protocol performance.
You can also stake GM tokens (like GM-ETH) to increase yield further.
This lets you compound earnings from trading fees.

Key insights:

• Rewards are real yield rather than inflationary token emissions
• Staking aligns you with the long-term growth of the platform

Best for: Passive earners who prefer holding and earning rather than trading.

Referral

The referral program gives you a unique referral code or link.
You can earn up to 15% of the trading fees from the users you refer, depending on your tier.
A dashboard shows the number of referrals, total fees generated, and your commissions over time.
Some tiers offer bonus multipliers if your referred users trade more or stake tokens.

Key insights:

• A useful growth tool for influencers and educators
• Potential for steady passive income

Best for: Content creators, educators, or DeFi promoters.

Leaderboard

See top traders on GMX ranked by PnL and ROI.

• Public board displaying:
  • Top gainers
  • Biggest trades
  • Metrics like win rate, open interest, total volume
• Encourages competition and transparency

Best for: Aspiring pro traders or curious users watching the whales.

Docs

The documentation section includes guides on trading, staking, GM token mechanics, and the transition from GLP to GM.
It covers fee structures, oracle systems, risk management approaches, and smart contract audits.
There are also governance resources such as whitepapers, tokenomics explanations, and technical specifications.
Content is regularly updated to reflect changes in the V2 protocol.

Key insights:

• A resource for both new and technical users
• Useful for verifying facts and conducting research

Best for: Users who want to understand GMX deeply before using real funds.

GMX Exchange Analytics as per July 2025

GMX continues to prove itself as one of the most robust decentralized perpetual exchanges in the crypto world. The latest performance stats paint a strong picture of sustained growth, user confidence, and protocol resilience.

Strong Trading Volume & User Base

At the forefront, GMX has processed a total trading volume of $308.74 billion — a staggering figure that reflects the high activity and trust users place in the platform. With over 1 million users (1,089,436 to be exact), GMX has established a solid user base that most DeFi platforms can only aspire to reach.

Even on a daily basis, the trading activity remains consistent. In the last 24 hours alone, GMX recorded $165.08 million in volume, while the weekly figure stood strong at $1.27 billion. This shows a healthy pipeline of trading activity despite market volatility.

Impressive Revenue Generation

GMX has generated $442.45 million in total fees, a key metric for both platform sustainability and community rewards. What makes this even more appealing is that these fees are shared with GMX and GM token stakers, creating a passive income opportunity for loyal holders.

Breaking it down further:

• 24H Fees collected: $253.73K
• Weekly Fees: $2.13M
  

These consistent fee revenues highlight GMX’s appeal not just as a trading platform, but also as a yield-generating tool for DeFi investors.

Open Interest & Liquidity Strength

Open interest, which reflects the total amount of active long and short positions — is sitting at $289.61 million. This means traders are confident enough in the platform to leave large amounts of capital deployed in leveraged trades.

Meanwhile, the TVL (Total Value Locked) across GMX V1 and V2 versions is at $395.02 million, reinforcing its position as a deeply liquid and well-utilized protocol.

Market Capitalisation

The market cap of GMX stands at $130.01 million, indicating a healthy valuation in proportion to its activity and earnings. This could hint at a value opportunity for long-term token holders, especially when compared to centralized exchange valuations.

Daily & Weekly User Engagement

• Daily Active Users: 3,140 (Approx)
• Weekly Users: 4,176 (Approx)

While these numbers suggest a dedicated daily core user group, they also reflect room for wider growth if the platform expands into new user segments, mobile interfaces, or integrations with more wallets and L2s.

Minor Fluctuations

The stats also shows:

• -0.13% daily change in volume
• +3.94% weekly volume growth
• -6.37% drop in daily open interest
• -8.10% in weekly open interest

These variations are minor and expected in any active trading ecosystem. They reflect short-term market adjustments rather than any decline in user trust or activity.

Trading Fees(GMX V2 Structure)

GMX has a simple and fair fee model:

Fee Type	Rate
Swap Fees	0.2% to 0.8% (dynamic)
Open/Close Leverage	0.1% per side (total 0.2%)
Execution Fee	Gas-based (low on Arbitrum/Avalanche)
Borrowing Fee	Dynamic (based on asset utilization)
Funding Rate	None — replaced by borrowing fee

• 70% of fees go to GM liquidity providers, while 30% go to GMX stakers. No inflation gimmicks!
• Compared to centralized exchanges like Binance or KuCoin, the trading fees might seem a bit higher—but keep in mind, there’s no KYC, and you maintain full control of your funds.

GMX Review: Pros & Cons of using GMX

Customer Support & Community

Being a decentralized protocol, GMX doesn’t have a “customer support hotline.” But it does have a strong and responsive community. You can join their:

• Telegram
• Discord
• Twitter
  

The documentation also solves most user queries. The devs and mods are quite active, especially on Discord, which makes problem resolution quick.

Is GMX Worth Trying?

Absolutely – if you know what you’re doing.

GMX strikes a fine balance between powerful trading tools and decentralized freedom. It’s not for complete beginners, but if you’re even slightly familiar with MetaMask, wallets, and how leverage works, you’ll appreciate GMX’s smooth interface, real yield system, and low-fee trading.

Whether you’re a trader hunting for leveraged plays or a yield farmer seeking sustainable rewards, GMX offers the tools  and the transparency that most DEXs fail to deliver.