GMX Exchange Review: Fees, Liquidity, and Why Traders Choose It in 2025

When you trade perpetual futures on GMX, a decentralized exchange built for high-performance trading with low slippage and no order books. Also known as GMX Protocol, it lets you trade crypto like Bitcoin and Ethereum with up to 50x leverage—without needing to trust a central company. Unlike traditional exchanges, GMX runs on Arbitrum and Avalanche, using its own liquidity pools instead of matching buyers and sellers. This means your trades don’t get stuck waiting for someone else to take the other side—you trade directly against a pool of funds.

That’s where GMX liquidity, the total amount of capital locked in GMX’s trading pools to enable smooth, fast trades. Also known as liquidity pools, it’s what keeps prices stable even when big orders hit the market. In 2025, GMX’s liquidity pools hold over $1.2 billion across Arbitrum and Avalanche, making it one of the most liquid DeFi derivatives platforms. Compare that to centralized exchanges like Binance or Bybit, where liquidity is spread thin across hundreds of coins. GMX focuses on just a few major assets—BTC, ETH, SOL, AVAX—and crushes it on those. You won’t find obscure altcoins here, but if you’re trading Bitcoin with 20x leverage, GMX’s slippage is often 10x lower than what you’d see on a CEX.

Then there’s the GMX trading fees, the cost to open or close a position, which includes a small execution fee and a funding rate. Also known as trading costs, they’re designed to be cheap for users and rewarding for liquidity providers. You pay just 0.1% to open a trade, and if you’re using GMX’s native token (GMX) to pay, you get a discount. The real money maker? The 0.05% fee that goes straight into the pool, boosting rewards for those who stake GLP—the token that represents your share of the liquidity pool. It’s a system where the more you trade, the more the people who supply liquidity earn—and the more they earn, the deeper the pools get. It’s a loop that works because everyone has skin in the game.

GMX isn’t for everyone. No fiat on-ramps. No customer support chat. You need a wallet, some crypto, and the patience to learn how to use a DeFi interface. But if you’re tired of exchange hacks, withdrawal delays, or hidden fees, and you want to trade crypto like a pro without middlemen, GMX is one of the few platforms that actually delivers on that promise. Below, you’ll find real user experiences, fee comparisons with other platforms, and what to watch out for before you trade your first position.