How to Buy GMX (GMX)
Beginner’s Guide
What is GMX?
GMX is a decentralized spot and perpetual exchange that supports low swap fees and zero price impact trades. Trading is supported by a unique multi-asset pool that earns liquidity providers fees from market making, swap fees, leverage trading (spreads, funding fees & liquidations) and asset rebalancing. Dynamic pricing is supported by Chainlink Oracles along with TWAP pricing from leading volume DEXs. For token holders: Tokenomics and Rewards For liquidity providers: GLP For traders: Trading . Today, the majority of crypto trading is done via centralized exchanges. This is because of their great user experience, powerful features that help traders achieve their goals, and in-built security functions to protect user funds from the various perils of the big bad world of crypto trading. But what of the ethos of decentralization set out in the Satoshi whitepaper, at cryptocurrency’s very inception? Enter the decentralized exchange, the DeFi world’s answer to central custody. With a decentralized exchange, you use your wallet, and are the custodian of your own funds. Of course, there are existent problems that plague decentralized exchanges, such as poor user experience and low liquidity. However, projects like GMX seek to address this through easy-to-use functionality and a mechanism called a multi-asset liquidity pool to enhance the reward investment cycle for liquidity providers. Launched in 2021 on Arbitrum and since also on Avalanche, GMX is a decentralized exchange offering spot and perpetual contracts trading. It boasts low swap fees and zero price impact trades. Utilizing a multi-asset pool, GMX gives liquidity providers rewards in the form of GLP, GMX’s liquidity provider token. Being a decentralized exchange, GMX does not have an order book like you would find on a centralized exchange, and there is no central authority handling funds. In lieu of this order book are liquidity providers and its multi-asset pool. But how exactly does this feature function?
How to Buy GMX Summary
- Get a GMX Network wallet (e.g. Ledger, Trezor ,Guardia, Exodus , AtomicWallet)
- Find an exchange that sells GMX (e.g. Binance, Coinbase, Kucoin, Bitfinex , ByBit)
- Deposit money and make the trade
- Withdraw the GMX to your wallet
Buying GMX (GMX) in 3 Simple Steps
Step 1 – Get a GMX wallet
GMX (GMX) Hardware Wallets
The best option for storing any cryptocurrency would be to use a hardware wallet. These are pieces of hardware that store the private key to your coins offline.
Today, there are two leading hardware manufacturers to choose from – Ledger and TREZOR. Both companies have different models of hardware wallets that will get the job done.
If you want deeper insights on specific models, you can read my Ledger Nano X review or my TREZOR Model T review.
GMX (GMX) Software Wallets
GMX is a relatively new cryptocurrency, and as of now, there are no wallets that are specific to GMX. However, since GMX is an ERC-20 token, it can be stored in any Ethereum-compatible wallet that supports ERC-20 tokens. Some popular examples of such wallets include MyEtherWallet, MetaMask, Ledger Nano S, Trezor, and Exodus. Before storing your GMX in a software wallet, make sure to do your own research and choose a reputable wallet that fits your needs.
Hardware wallets cost money, so if you’re not sure how serious you are about cryptocurrencies and just want to get a taste of what they feel like, perhaps you would be better off starting with a software wallet.
A software wallet is a free program that lets you store your coins on your computer or mobile phone.
The easiest GMX (GMX) software wallets to get started with are undoubtedly Exodus, AtomicWallet and Guarda . All wallets are very intuitive. Exodus, Atomic Wallet and Guarda is available on desktop for Windows, Mac and Linux, as well as on mobile for both iOS and Android. If you want more information you can read my Exodus, AtomicWallet and Guarda review.
Step 2 – Find an GMX (GMX) Exchange
Buy GMX (GMX) through Binance
- Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange which is the largest exchange in the world in terms of daily trading volume of cryptocurrencies. It was founded in 2017 and is registered in the Cayman Islands. Binance was founded by Changpeng Zhao, a developer who had previously created high frequency trading software.
Buy GMX (GMX) through Kucoin
- Kucoin is a global cryptocurrency exchange for numerous digital assets and cryptocurrencies. Launched in September 2017, KuCoin has grown into one of the most popular crypto exchanges and already has over 8 million registered users from 700+ countries and regions. According to Alexa traffic ranking, KuCoin’s monthly unique ranking is in the top 5 globally. Known as the “People’s Exchange”, KuCoin operates in Seychelles, providing users with multi-language and 24/7 customer service. Meanwhile, KuCoin has established local communities all over the world in South Korea, Japan, Spain, Italy, Vietnam, Turkey, Russia, India, and other regions, providing users with the most local services. Currently, 1 out of every 4 crypto holders in the world is with KuCoin.
Buy GMX (GMX) through Gate.io
- Gate.io is a crypto exchange founded in the fall of 2017. The platform is a part of Gate Technology Inc corporation, and has a registration address in Virginia, USA. The platform does not have an official license. Its interface is available for working in three versions: English, Chinese and Japanese.
Buy GMX (GMX) through Huobi
- Huobi is a Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange. Founded in China, the company now has offices in Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and the United States. In August 2018 it became a publicly listed Hong Kong company. Following a 2017 ban on Bitcoin exchanges by the Chinese government, Huobi stopped Bitcoin withdrawals.
Buy GMX (GMX) through Bybit
- The exchange prides itself on delivering multilingual online support to its customers and is committed to providing a transparent and efficient trading experience. The products on the platform include BTC/USD, ETH/USD, LTC/USD, and XRP/USD perpetual contracts. A perpetual contract resembles a traditional futures contract in many ways. Its main difference, however, is that it doesn’t have an expiry date. Hence, traders are allowed to hold their positions for as long as they need to.Moreover, the exchange boasts a 100,000 TPS state-of-the-art matching engine. While many of its competitors have suffered from repeated overload problems, this high-performance matching engine makes it possible for Bybit to stand above the competition.The Bybit cryptocurrency broker platform is operated by the Bybit Fintech Limited which is registered on the British Virgin Islands, with headquarters in Singapore. The company was launched in March 2018, making it a fairly young player on the market.
Step 3 – Withdraw Your GMX (GMX)
Once you decide on an exchange, open an account and buy your GMX (GMX). Make sure to withdraw the GMX (GMX) from the exchange to your personal wallet.
Never leave coins on an exchange, as you risk losing them all if that exchange gets hacked or shuts down (which has happened in the past).
OVERVIEW
How does GMX work?
What sets GMX apart is its use of a multi-asset liquidity pool that rewards liquidity providers in the form of the platform’s liquidity provider token, GLP, an index of the different tokens in the multi-asset pool. These tokens include the GMX token, ETH, BTC, LINK, UNI, USDC, USDT, DAI, MIM, and FRAX.
How it works is that liquidity providers invest on the index of assets on the platform and receive GLP in proportion to how much they put in. They can then stake GLP in order to earn platform fees resulting from market making, swap fees, and leverage trading.
Another feature of GMX is its use of price oracles to both empower trades and hedge against liquidation risk. Utilizing Chainlink and other price feeds to get accurate pricing data for the various assets in its pool, GMX is able to pinpoint when liquidations occur, protecting users’ positions.
Like other DEX’s, users need only to connect a compatible wallet like MetaMask. GMX allows users to perform spot and perpetual contract trades that provide for up to 30x leverage.
GLP
GLP, the liquidity provider token for GMX, comprises an index of the assets that make up GMX’s multi-asset pool system. What is the $GMX token?
$GMX is the platform’s utility and governance token. Holders are able to stake their $GMX tokens for rewards. The different rewards that one can receive are Escrowed GMX*, Multiplier Points, and ETH/AVAX Rewards. Holders are able to stake on Arbitrum and Avalanche, receiving ETH or AVAX, respectively. This is not to be confused with $GLP, the platform’s liquidity provider token that participants get for providing trading liquidity.
Let’s break down what each type of reward does:
Escrowed GMX, abbreviated as esGMX, can be staked for rewards or vested to become $GMX tokens after 1 year. esGMX is not transferable.
Multiplier Points can currently be staked to increase ETH/AVAX APRs when staking $GMX.
AVAX/ETH are earned when a user stakes $GMX on Avalanche or Arbitrum, respectively. When staking $GMX, a user will earn 30% of the fees incurred on the platform.