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Proposals
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As I’ve had more time to think about this, the more I think Gmx should focus on asset listings, not chains. Arb and OP are still the main perpetual arenas. Gmx first needs to show an advantage in asset listing, LP profitability, and trader experience, so I think new chains should take a backseat. Perps volume over the last 12 months is largely driven on incentives, and when incentives bleed, so does volume (see: Avax).

Why move to a new chain in the first place

  1. Increased user base / exposure to new market participants
  2. Decrease protocol’s reliance on a single blockchain

For #1. we wouldn’t be creating new demand for perps. The most sticky chains already have perps protocols so we’d essentially be trying to directly compete with a less significant offering. The additional user base would be marginal. The big gains from user base or volume are going to come from mass adoption and/or significant MMing / traders who want to use the product. If you agree with that take, we should really be creating a trading experience for larger players, this might involve continually tweaking the perps model. This could mean better UX. Probably both.

For #2. I don’t think this is currently a big enough risk. We’ve seen chains go down over and over and no one really seems to care about this outside of ideologically. This can likely be pushed off. Also, when people advocate for new chains, they’re mostly talking about #1

New participants come from larger traders / MMs. Given GMX’s current model

Drawbacks to deploying on new chains

  1. Is this even the highest impact feature? I’d say no. We’re probably better off bootstrapping 3-4 new GM pools on arb than we are deploying on a new chain. The time/return payoff is vastly superior. Deploying to a new chain takes about 3 months. 3-4 pools would take a few weeks. Both increase volume and fees, but you can do one of these in 1/3 the time. Given that the GM model is infant, I think we continue to stress test that, rather than try our hand at a new chain we don’t know until we have dedicated teams for chain expansion (low priority imo).

  2. Using treasury liquidity to bootstrap new pools (unless GMX gets a grant but then you’re sacrificing the important competitive advantage of speed). Money isn’t endless and the more bootstrapping that’s done the more the team needs to manage it’s LPing. The more managing it needs the more people they’ll need unless they set up decent automated mechanisms for LPing (like someone building a GM yield optimizer)

Expansion should occur if/ when x4 comes about. However, give uniswap’s love of taking ideas from others, idk if that’ll happen anymore. But if it does, then I think x4 would be multi-chain

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