What is GMX?

The main GMX product is leveraged perpetual trading. A perpetual is a derivatives position that tracks an underlying market without an expiry date. You can open a long position if you expect the index price to rise or a short position if you expect it to fall. Maximum leverage, accepted collateral and available liquidity differ by market.

GMX also supports swaps and liquidity provision. Trading costs can include position fees, an applicable borrow fee, funding, network execution and price impact. Liquidity providers deposit into individual GM pools or broader GLV vaults and receive most eligible pool fees while accepting asset, trader-PnL, contract and liquidity risks.

GMX uses oracle-based pricing and pooled liquidity rather than matching every trader with another order on a central limit order book. Chainlink Data Streams provide a minimum and maximum price. Which side of that spread GMX uses depends on whether an order opens or closes a long or short position.

A keeper executes the order after it is submitted. The final result can therefore include oracle movement during that interval, the position fee, network execution cost and net price impact. Net price impact reflects whether a position operation improves or worsens long-versus-short open-interest balance. It is separate from the allowed-slippage setting shown in the interface.

GMX currently has active direct-trading markets on Arbitrum, Avalanche and MegaETH. A direct wallet trade settles on the network selected in the interface and uses supported assets from that wallet as margin.

GMX Account is a separate account-based experience that settles trades on Arbitrum. It can be funded from supported networks including Ethereum, Base and BNB Chain, which does not mean GMX runs local perpetual markets on each funding network. GMX Account requires Express Trading, while smart-contract wallets currently use Classic Trading.

GM pools are market-specific liquidity pools. Their long and short backing tokens support trader positions and swaps. GLV stands for GMX Liquidity Vault: a vault that can allocate liquidity among approved GM markets sharing the same backing-token pair. GLV is intended to simplify allocation, but it adds its own shift and market-exposure risks.

GMX is the protocol's utility and governance token. Staking grants governance participation and a share of protocol-fee buybacks under the current reward design. The 2026 staking model includes accumulating staking power and a loyalty threshold, so older claims about automatic ETH, AVAX or esGMX emissions should not be treated as current.

Wallet-based access removes the need for a traditional username and password, but it does not remove smart-contract exposure. Margin used for a position interacts with protocol contracts. Oracle dependencies, keeper execution, chain conditions, market caps, governance changes and token risks remain.

Leverage is the largest direct risk for most traders. Accrued borrowing and funding fees can move a liquidation price closer even when the index price is unchanged. Before trading, verify the official app.gmx.io domain, review execution details and start with an amount whose loss would not affect your finances.