GMX: Does the pioneer of decentralized perps still have a chance of survival against its competitors?

Every day, nearly $18 billion in leveraged contracts are traded directly on the blockchain, without going through any exchange. Four years ago, this market did not exist. GMX is the protocol that invented the model on which it was built. Today, it captures 0.5% of the market. What happened?

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1. The Origins of GMX: Leveraged Trading Without Trusting Your Funds to Anyone {#h-1-aux-origines-de-gmx-trader-a-levier-sans-confier-ses-fonds-a-personne}

To understand what GMX has brought, one must remember what did not exist before it.

The most traded product in crypto is called the perpetual, or perp. It is a leveraged contract with no expiration date: you bet on the rise or fall, multiply your exposure, and stay in position as long as you want. Until 2021, almost all of this volume went through a centralized exchange. Binance, Bybit, BitMEX. You opened an account, sent your funds, and from there you no longer controlled them.

GMX broke that in 2021. The principle it invented is called peer-to-pool: instead of making you deposit with an intermediary, the protocol puts in front of you a common liquidity pool, fed by other users. Your funds remain in your wallet. No account, no identity verification, no human counterpart. You connect your wallet and trade with leverage.

And it worked well beyond GMX. Perpetuals traded directly on the blockchain rose from 2.7% to 26% of all crypto futures contracts between 2023 and the end of 2025, according to BlockEden, with a peak of $1,049 billion traded in just the month of October 2025. This share has been taken from Binance and its competitors by decentralized protocols. GMX opened this path.

One last detail, which matters for the future: GMX has never done a funding round with professional investors. No funds in the capital, no known identity in the team. A rare credibility. And no war chest.

2. Where Did the Volume of Decentralized Perps Go? {#h-2-ou-est-passe-le-volume-des-perps-decentralises}

GMX opened this path. It retains almost nothing from it. About $90 million per day, out of $17.8 billion traded daily by the entire sector. That’s 0.5%.

The decline is also reflected in its own figures, unmatched by anyone. In February 2025, GMX processed $10.58 billion in a month. Today it processes $2.7 billion. The protocol has lost three-quarters of its activity while the market shifted towards the blockchain.

Where has this volume gone? To three platforms that have made the opposite choice. Hyperliquid processes $3.4 billion per day at its core, and up to $9 to $11 billion when counting markets deployed by third parties. With them, its ecosystem accounts for about half of the reported volume in the sector. It is valued at $13.4 billion, nearly 200 times GMX, and returns 97% of its fees to its token. Lighter competes on price, with zero trading fees. Aster advances with the halo of CZ and a Binance listing. All three operate with an order book, the classic system of major marketplaces, where buy and sell orders meet directly.

The hardest pill to swallow lies elsewhere. Jupiter, on Solana, is a copy of GMX's model, built on a faster blockchain. At the measured pace by the end of 2025, it was already processing five times the volume of the original.

This movement does not just redistribute the cards among decentralized protocols. It kills the old ones. BitMEX, which invented the 100x leverage and held 57% of the crypto derivatives market in 2019, now accounts for less than 0.01%. The platform announced on July 23, 2026, that it would permanently close on September 23. Three days later, on July 26, BitMart also announced the cessation of its activities. Two centralized exchanges closing their doors in one week.

The decentralized ones have taken down the old guard. The question remains whether the pioneer of decentralization will escape the same fate.

3. Why GMX is Capped

The model that has made it strong is also what prevents it from growing.

At GMX, a unique liquidity reserve serves as the counterparty for all traders. Elegant, except for one point: when a trader wins, it is the reserve that pays. At a competitor, this same reserve was drained of over $18 million in one night. To protect it, the protocol must limit the size of open positions and charge a permanent rent on each position. As a result, a big trader who wins often is unwelcome by design.

Moreover, there is no room for market makers, the professionals paid to constantly display a buy price and a sell price. They are the ones who allow entry and exit with large amounts without causing price slippage. An order book rolls out the red carpet for them. A common reserve has nothing to offer.

Hence the first rule, applicable on any platform: liquidity goes where professionals can work.

The second is more brutal: liquidity follows the money. Winners have massively distributed tokens to attract traders. GMX has never done this on that scale. The $3.15 million program voted in February 2026 does not play in the same league.

The real question is no longer GMX.

If the model is being copied, what matters now is: which of the winners will last? This is the work of Crypto Deep Research. Every month, four protocols are opened to the fund, with on-chain numbers and tokenomics to separate the true winner from the flash in the pan.

Discover Crypto Deep Research

4. What is the GMX token used for today?

Let's rephrase the question: if you buy it, what do you receive? Today, nothing. And it's not an accident; it's a written rule.

Money, on the other hand, always comes in. For every dollar in fees collected, 63 cents go to those who provide liquidity, and 37 cents do not return to them. Of these 37 cents, 27 are used to buy back GMX on the market, while the rest covers treasury and operating expenses.

Be careful not to confuse the two roles. Those who provide liquidity are paid: between 7 and 12% per year, before the losses they absorb when traders win. Those who simply hold the token, however, receive nothing. Since March 4, 2026, the distribution has been suspended. The repurchased GMX accumulates in a fund and will only be released above $90, which is thirteen times the current price of $6.75. GMX was the showcase for income derived from real fees rather than token emissions. This income is now zero.

This explains a misleading figure. Between the end of June and the end of July 2026, the token gained 23%. The volume during the same period has not budged an inch: it has been between $2.7 billion and $3.0 billion per month since April. The price rises because the protocol buys back its own tokens and because the market supports it, not because more trading is happening on it.

Commodities and Pre-IPO: The Last Card

This is the most cited differentiation track, and it really exists. GMX continuously quotes gold, oil, and gas, as well as contracts on SpaceX before its IPO.

The measurement remains. The five commodity markets account for 4.08% of the volume and 1.64% of the fees, for 96 genuinely new addresses. Over the last three complete months, the share has reached 4.62%, and the June peak is due to 82% from oil alone. The new market exists, but it is weak.

And nothing prevents others from doing the same. Adding gold or oil to a perpetual platform is not a technical feat; it's a configuration line. Hyperliquid or Lighter could open the same markets next month, with much more liquidity behind them. GMX has found a niche. It has not locked it down.

5. Finally: Does GMX Still Have a Chance?

First, let's dismiss the false trial. The protocol is not sinking. It has collected $1.74 million in fees over thirty days, and it buys back its own tokens every week. Its current architecture has never been breached. The previous one was breached in July 2025 for $42 million, and the protocol fully reimbursed the liquidity providers. And that is rare, very rare. We want to repeat it; it is an achievement in cryptocurrency. Hats off to the protocol.

Three things could put it back in the race: switching to an order book, reopening the faucet to its holders, or paying to attract traders.

On the second point, there is no misunderstanding. The rule indeed states that distribution will resume, but only above $90. Lowering this threshold requires a vote. Three attempts in four months, three rejections. The community itself does not want it.

As of July 25, 2026, none of the three are at the required level, neither in the published code nor in the votes. Work on the next version has been halted since November 2025. GMX even quietly closed its deployment on a blockchain in July without announcing it anywhere.

GMX is not dying. It is just not very useful anymore.

A DEX of perps without volume is like a toll road without cars. No one passes through anymore, fees drop, and there’s nothing left to distribute to the token. GMX is at this point: volume has shrunk by 74%, and since March 2026, holders haven’t received a dollar.

But this volume hasn’t disappeared. It has gone elsewhere, to those who allow professionals to work. That’s the only thing worth watching now. And that’s our job: we follow the money, protocol by protocol, and we report what we find.

The signals above are continuously monitored, with their thresholds, dates, and the on-chain data that triggers them. Readers of Journal du Coin have a dedicated space.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is GMX dead?

No. The protocol generated $1.74 million in fees over thirty days as of July 24, 2026, and its current architecture has never been breached. The previous one was breached in July 2025, for $42 million, which was fully reimbursed. What has shrunk is its market share: about 0.5% of decentralized perps, compared to about half of the reported volume for the Hyperliquid ecosystem.

Why has GMX's price dropped so much?

The token is down 92.6% from its peak in April 2023. The measurable cause is the leakage of volume to order books: GMX processed $10.58 billion per month in February 2025, it processes $2.7 billion today.

Does GMX staking still yield returns in 2026?

No for the token holder: distribution has been suspended since March 4, 2026, and will only resume above $90. Yes for those who deposit liquidity in the pools, earning between 7% and 12% per year, before the losses they absorb when traders win.

What’s the difference between GMX and Hyperliquid?

At GMX, a common reserve serves as the counterparty for all traders. At Hyperliquid, an order book allows traders to meet directly, and professionals are paid to provide liquidity. This allows for large orders to be executed without slippage in price.

What is the peer-to-pool model?

A model where a common liquidity reserve is the sole counterparty for all positions. It removes the intermediary but requires capping positions and charging a permanent rent to protect this reserve.

Can GMX make a comeback?

Three things would indicate this: a switch to an order book, the resumption of distribution to holders, or a real budget to attract traders. As of July 25, 2026, none are at the required level.

Partner Chronicle Journal du Coin x Crypto Deep Research. On-chain data as of July 24, 2026 (CoinGecko, DefiLlama, Dune, perps.info). This article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.

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