[MODIFIED] Marketing Funds to Promote GMX and to Test Trader Incentive Scheme

Proposals
1

Funds Request for Multiple Upcoming Marketing and Incentive Scheme Activities

Summary

This proposal outlines a request for marketing funds to be made available to a GMX-controlled Multi-Sig to facilitate a trader-focused marketing program aimed at rewarding GMX users and increasing trading volume across GMX deployments on Arbitrum, Avalanche, BNB Chain, Ethereum Mainnet, Base, and potentially MegaETH, while testing permanent incentive models. Based on community feedback and the upcoming MegaETH chain launch, the allocated budget has been increased from $2,150,000 to $3,150,000 to support expanded scope and execution.

A total allocation of $3,150,000 is requested for marketing and incentives, to be used across multiple activities including, but not limited to, MegaETH bootstrapping, KOL campaigns, incentive program testing and modeling, and general marketing initiative.

Background

GMX currently generates between $4 and $7B in monthly trading volume across all chains. To remain competitive with platforms that offer aggressive trader incentive programs, the platform needs effective mechanisms that reward active trading.

This proposal looks to secure funds for general marketing, bootstrapping, and to test a direct rebate system, in which trading fees flow back to active traders in proportion to their engagement with the platform.

Key goals are:

  • To test whether fee rebates can sustainably drive volume growth while improving GMX’s competitive positioning.
  • To reward user loyalty, boost the utility of the GMX token, and strengthen the relationship between GMX protocol activity and the token.
  • Drive mindshare and user activity to key areas within the platform.

Below is an overview of what the requested funds would achieve:

Incentive Scheme Test
Example of what a future scheme might entail: traders will earn points and points multipliers through the following engagement pathways. All multipliers stack additively, with a hard cap.

Budget Allocation
Fee rebates can be used to offset up to a set percent of the open and close fees of future trades, which are rebated in GMX tokens. Points will be awarded to historical traders based on criteria to be set in a future post.

$2,000,000 USDC will purchase GMX from the open market at a rate matching the redemption of previous weeks’ points.

Example of structure

Staking
Staking GMX will offer one of the largest multipliers for gaining points on your perp trading volume.

Volume
Volume is the second largest points multiplier, with historical activity and the previous epoch’s’ average volume taken into account

Activity-Based Multipliers (Per-Trade)
Below is a list of currently planned platform activities that may give additional multipliers to points. There may be more added or removed depending on the activities and protocol elements GMX wishes to emphasize and incentivize.

  • Multichain trading: trades executed from Base, BNB Chain, Ethereum Mainnet, MegaETH, etc

  • Featured/New markets: trades executed on designated markets

  • Balancing trades: trades that improve the Open Interest balance

Hard Cap: There is an undisclosed cap on multiplier stacking to prevent abuse.

Distribution Mechanics
Epoch Structure: 1 week (Wednesday 00:00 UTC - Tuesday 23:59 UTC)
Minimum Stake Duration: 7 days for multipliers to apply
Claims: Weekly distributions, every Wednesday 00:01 UTC
Cycle: Points are awarded for 1 week’s trading activity, and points are converted to fee rebates through the following week’s trading activity.
Rebate Form: Points*, GMX

Phases of Implementation
Phase 1: Community discussion and feedback
Phase 2: Snapshot vote
Phase 3: Dev / UX update, Marketing Promotion
Phase 4: Trading volume is recorded, and rebates are calculated offline and then manually sent to the distribution contact.

Success Metrics
The campaign will be evaluated on a set of criteria outlined in a future gov post specific to exact details of the program.

MegaETH Bootstrapping and Campaigns

Funds would be earmarked for use to draw liquidity and traders to the MegaETH deployment. With the use going towards but not limited to: incentivization of providing liquidity, trading, and other campaigns. The use of these funds would fall to the discretion of Contributors.

Budget
$500,000 for use in and around incentivizing and bootstrapping activity on MegaETH

Duration
Funds are for immediate use within the MegaETH ecosystem and will cover Q1 of 2026 with possible use in Q2 if the duration of activities spill over.

General Marketing activities

Funds would be earmarked for the use of marketing and promoting GMX across all of its deployments and through avenues to be evaluated and measured by Core Contributors.

Budget
$500,000 for use in and around the ecosystem to promote all aspects of GMX

Duration
Funds are for immediate use and will cover Q1 of 2026 with possible use in Q2 if the duration of marketing programs spill over.

KOL and Mindshare

Funds would be earmarked for use to draw attention to specific campaigns and the incentive test scheme. The activities would be in and around growing educational threads, social mindshare, and general targeting promotional activities deemed fit after extensive evaluation by Core Contributors

Budget:
$150,000 for use in and around the ecosystem to promote all aspects of GMX

Duration:
Funds are for immediate use and will cover Q1 of 2026 with possible use in Q2 if the duration of marketing programs spill over.

Conclusion

This proposal requests funds be made available to a Multi-Sig for rapid marketing activities in the Q1–Q2 interim period 2026 and introduces a competitive trader incentive program that directly rewards active GMX staking through rebates on future trading fees. It also encompasses liquidity incentives, new chain expansion initiatives, and the flexibility to support additional future incentive programs as needed. All unutilized funds will be returned to the DAO treasury, with contributors providing monthly reports to keep the DAO informed on incentive distribution and spending.

**

Below is the previous draft, maintained for posterity:*~~

GMX Q1 2026 Marketing - 3 Month Campaign~~***

Rewarding GMX traders and Stakers for their loyalty

Summary

This proposal outlines a 3-month trader-focused marketing program to reward GMX users and increase trading volume across the GMX deployments on Arbitrum, Avalanche, BNB Chain, Ethereum Mainnet, Base, and potentially MegaETH, while testing a permanent incentive model.

The program would emulate a long-term incentive model that redirects a portion of the generated trading fees back to active traders who stake GMX tokens, in the form of token rebates. A $2,150,000 marketing budget is requested to simulate this enabled incentive program and fund an initial awareness-generating campaign for it.

TL;DR: Traders who generate trading volume while staking GMX tokens will receive points based on their trading fees, with additional points multipliers based on GMX stake size, specific trading activity, and other qualifiers.

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Background

GMX currently generates between $4 and $7B in monthly trading volume across all chains. To remain competitive with platforms that offer aggressive trader incentive programs, the platform needs effective mechanisms that reward active trading.

This proposal tests a direct rebate system, in which trading fees flow back to active traders in proportion to their engagement with the platform. Key goals are:

  1. To test whether fee rebates can sustainably drive volume growth while improving GMX’s competitive positioning.

  2. To reward user loyalty, boost the utility of the GMX token, and strengthen the relationship between GMX protocol activity and the token

Event Structure

Traders will earn points and points multipliers through the following engagement pathways. All multipliers stack additively, with a hard cap.

  • Staking~~
    Staking GMX will offer one of the largest multipliers for gaining points on your perp trading volume~~

  • Volume~~
    Volume is the second largest points multiplier, with historical activity and the previous epoch’s’ average volume taken into account~~

  • Activity-Based Multipliers (Per-Trade)~~
    Below is a list of currently planned platform activities that may give additional multipliers to points. There may be more added or removed depending on the activities and protocol elements GMX wishes to emphasize and incentivize.~~

    • Multichain trading: trades executed from Base, BNB Chain, Ethereum Mainnet, MegaETH, etc

    • Featured/New markets: trades executed on designated markets

    • Balancing trades: trades that improve the Open Interest balance

Hard Cap: There is an undisclosed cap on multiplier stacking to prevent abuse.

Budget Allocation

Total Budget: $2,150,000 USDC

  • Fee rebates can be used to offset up to a set percent of the open and close fees of future trades, which are rebated in GMX tokens.

  • 2,000,000 USDC will purchase GMX from the open market at a rate matching the redemption of previous weeks’ points.

  • ~$150,000 will be used for an awareness-generating campaign through various media.

Distribution Mechanics

Epoch Structure: 1 week (Wednesday 00:00 UTC - Tuesday 23:59 UTC)
Minimum Stake Duration: 7 days for multipliers to apply
Claims: Weekly distributions, every Wednesday 00:01 UTC
Cycle: Points are awarded for 1 week’s trading activity, and points are converted to fee rebates through the following week’s trading activity.
Rebate Form: GMX

Claims Process:

  1. Traders generate points during a weekly epoch, calculated based on their trading activity + GMX stake + multipliers

  2. Points Rewards accrue during trading and become available for conversion the next week, starting Wednesday 00:00 UTC

  3. Points can be converted to trading fee rebates to offset the open and close fees on perp trading volume in the weeks after

  4. Traders claim these fee rebates as GMX tokens, via a dedicated interface in the GMX dApp using the established claim system

The use of liquid GMX tokens (rather than escrowed tokens) provides immediate utility and allows traders to compound their rebates by staking claimed tokens to increase future multipliers.

Phases of Implementation

Phase 1: Community discussion and feedback
Phase 2: Snapshot vote
Phase 3: Dev / UX update, Marketing Promotion
Phase 4: Trading volume is recorded, and rebates are calculated offline and then manually sent to the distribution contact.

Success Metrics

The campaign will be evaluated on:

  1. Volume Growth: Total volume and per-chain increases vs baseline

  2. Trader Acquisition: New wallets meeting stake requirements

  3. Retention: Percentage of participants continuing to trade post-campaign

  4. Engagement Depth: Average multiplier achieved (indicates multi-dimensional participation)

  5. Claim Rate: Percentage of rebates claimed vs expired (indicates friction)

  6. GMX Stake Changes: Net change in total GMX staked (measures passive holder reaction)

  7. Fee Generation: Protocol revenue vs baseline, adjusted for market conditions

  8. Competitive Positioning: Cost to trade on GMX vs competing platforms

  9. Budget Efficiency: Volume increase per dollar of supplement spent

  10. Chain Distribution: More balanced volume across ecosystem chains

Rationale

Why Fee Rebates?

Currently, the GMX tokenomics primarily reward passive staking. As the Perp market grows with platforms offering aggressive points programs and trading incentives, GMX would benefit from mechanisms that directly reward platform usage.

Fee rebates accomplish several strategic goals:

  1. Direct value attribution: Traders see immediate returns on their fees

  2. Competitive parity: Max rebate matches or exceeds competing platforms

  3. Sustainable structure: Base % of fee redirect creates predictable costs

  4. Multiple engagement vectors: Program enables rewarding staking, trading volume, multichain usage, and new market adoption

  5. Time-bounded test: 3-month duration provides data without permanent commitment

Why Liquid GMX vs esGMX?

Distributing liquid GMX tokens rather than escrowed tokens provides several advantages:

  • Immediate utility: Can be staked immediately to increase future multipliers

  • Clearer value: Market price vs discounted escrowed value

  • Simpler mechanics: No vesting schedules or reserve requirements

  • Compounding opportunity: Stake claimed tokens → increase multiplier → earn more rebates

  • Competitive edge: Liquid value vs speculative points on other platforms

Voting Options

For: Approve 3-month marketing program with $2,150,000M USDC supplemental budget and for marketing activities described

Against: Reject the proposal

Abstain: Record participation without a directional vote

Conclusion

This proposal introduces a competitive trader incentive program that directly rewards active GMX staking through rebates on future trading fees. The multiplier system creates multiple pathways for us to optimize engagement, while maintaining a sustainable cost structure. This program creates tangible rewards that can allow for builders or Perp vaults more margin for error and a guaranteed return through the rebate.

The program tests a fundamental question: Can the utility of the GMX token benefit significantly from a more direct link to traders’ active platform participation?

Prioritizing active traders will drive sustainable volume growth, improve competitive positioning, and create better long-term value for the protocol. However, this comes with trade-offs, particularly a reduction in passive staker rewards if the program is made permanent after the 3-month campaign and a vast majority of volume comes from top tie GMX stakers.

The program’s trial structure allows the DAO to gather concrete data on volume growth, budget efficiency, and competitive impact before deciding whether to make this model permanent.

Note that the numbers in this proposal are vague to allow GMX to design the program in a way that best drives speculation and may change following ongoing math simulations.

Community feedback on the concept, parameters, and success criteria is welcome.

7 Likes
2

Reserved for future use.

edits to proposal:
-changed timeline into phases.

1/23/2026
With multitudes of feedback from community and contributors post has been greatly overhauled, removed details about points program to be detailed in a future posting in favor of having a more robust full marketing fund request.

3

Hey @Rob great proposal, just afew points, personally i feel that megaeth should be a major focus for GMX either through this proposal / a seperate one, we should try to get as much market share within megaeth perp space as we could through a strong programme such as this. MegaEth allows gmx to showcase its tech at its fullest form (lowest latency) due to the native chainlink integration.

Would there be a seperate marketing plan for MegaEth or can we adjust to target more points in MegaETH so that more users will go in LP/Trade there. Utilize gmx tech to its fullest.

2 Likes
4

Love to see this proposal be implemented and good to see marketing making progress here

2 Likes
5

Thank you for submitting the proposal. How will the fee split percentages change. )The 27/10/3/60)

Will this come from liquidity providers fee share/stakers/dao or some split.

Thanks

2 Likes
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This would come from the treasury for sure, the fee cant sustain this amount for now

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Bootstrapping GMX on MegaETH would be achieved by making trading on the chain qualify for Points Multipliers. (This is alongside other go-to-market activities, of course.)

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The engagement metrics of points awards could be skewed in favor of engaging with MegaETH if needed. The system will allow GMX to highlight new deployments and markets.

This is not a substitution for MegaETH launch marketing, but a request for a new baseline. I believe contributors are engaged in other forms of marketing for MegaETH.

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The budget for this trial campaign will be fully funded by the GMX Treasury, as junwei mentions. If it proves to be effective after evaluation, the fee split percentages could be changed to institute this type of program permanently. But it’s too early for that.

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10

This program would use USDC from the treasury for the trail period. At the end of the program data on the trading will be used to further refine a permanent sustainable model.

The future model has had a significant amount of time invested in it, and I believe this test run will get it across the finish line.

11

I have questions, but I first wanted to express my support for the proposal, questions will follow later. One thing about the 2M upfront, it should be the case in my view that if the whole 2M is handed out to traders, we should have profit from it in the end. I guess the discount levels matter much here!

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Exact numbers on the points awarded and their conversion have not been shared for speculative encouragement, but from estimates 25-50bil in volume from qualified traders would need to be generated over the tree month period.

For the lower end of the estimate, this would mean all volume comes from traders with the MAX amount of GMX staked needed to receive that categories point boost.

Again, exact rates of points issuance are TBD and adjusted as GMX sees fit during the program

1 Like
13

I’m hoping that the incentives for gmx activities would be funded by megaeth themselves, we build a good dex for them to get tons of users for megaeth.

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I think megaeth will probably do a incentive program but being fair to all perps deployed on them. So gmx do have to chip in to gain the first mover advantage imo.

Capture the users in that network first :sweat_smile:

3 Likes
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(Edited for clarity because holy moley I write way too much)

Thank you for posting this Rob. While the pivot back to a “Points” narrative is the correct strategic move, this “Version 1.0” of the pivot plan can result in more harm than good due to a dangerous “negative feedback loop” that could crash the token price. Like it’s almost a near guarantee.

Critical Issues:

  • Misaligned Incentives: Distributing liquid GMX while cutting passive staking APR is a recipe for disaster. Traders will immediately sell rewards, and loyal stakers will ALSO SELL due to reduced yield. This creates sell pressure from both sides.

  • Inorganic Volume: The proposal risks are cementing GMX liquidity as purely “subsidized” rather than organic. We are effectively paying for exit liquidity. This pivot should include a strategy to get everyone to want to buy $GMX, or at the very least reward traders but not at the expense of loyal (and long-suffering) stakers.

  • Wash Trading Risks: The “point multipliers” as written are easily gameable via wash trading and do not encourage genuine retention.

Essentially, by cutting passive APR to fund liquid token giveaways, you are alienating long-term holders to subsidize potential wash trading. The result? Traders dump the free tokens, and whales exit because their yield is cut, and the desired volume increase (the stated point of the proposal) would be mostly fake volume. We risk crashing GMX to $2 and leaving only inorganic, bot-driven liquidity.

Proposed Solutions:

  1. Reintroduce Vesting: Payouts must be vested (e.g., a 3-month esGMX model) or auto-staked. We have a year of data proving liquid recipients just dump. Meanwhile, esGMX worked great in its previous iteration. If your issue is that the vesting period is too long…just change the vesting period! 3-month staggered vesting helps buffer trader dumps at least.

  2. Protect Passive Capital: Do not alienate the passive stakers who provide price stability. Maybe re-direct some of the funds earmarked for treasury/administrative. I mean we are literally throwing money away on Q’s side-project. When that funding ends, it could be repurposed towards trader incentive program. And let’s be honest, the gmx footprint is much lower than it was two years ago, costs can be cut from elsewhere.

  3. Gamify Retention: Tie point multipliers to staking status. Unstaking should result in burning multipliers (similar to the pre-MP era) to discourage gaming and dumping.

I’m happy the team is trying to right the ship. And you’re moving in the right direction, there’s just too many pitfalls with this current V 1.0 of the plan. Let’s not rush this. We need a version of the GMX ecosystem that looks appealing to everyone to buy GMX, not just traders looking to farm and dump. That’s what was so fantastic about the old MP system: You can’t “wash trade” staking length. Please take these concerns to heart. The current proposal leaves too much space open for us ending up with fake volume that does nothing for us, the final capitulation of passive stakers, and still uptick in staking. The market is telling us what it wants, let’s just listen to it and modify this plan into a Version 2.0 that addresses the pitfalls that have been brought up.

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One other thing to add: At the end of the day, absolutely no strategy will succeed if the real yield continues to be the GMX token. If you’re not including a pivot away from this, then any attempt to rescue GMX from obscurity is doomed to fail. That’s a hard truth that the market is telling you.

  1. Virtually all distributed $GMX gets quickly sold into a more desirable yield, like ETH or USDC.

  2. The number of staked coins has not gone up.

  3. $GMX has lost nearly 70% of its value since the BB&D program was implemented, from mid-$20s to $7. We sacrificed the biggest incentive for people to buy $GMX, real yield in ETH, in favor of one bot being the only buy pressure. And it’s clearly not working since the price keeps rocketing downwards.

  4. And of course, the massive MASSIVE amount of money stakers missed out on if they weren’t switching their GMX to ETH on a daily basis. ETH rose like 58% since the BBD plan began. Why would anyone want their payout to be in GMX given that huge opportunity cost?

As you guys discuss the feedback you’re getting in this thread and the issues/concerns raised, I really hope you incorporate a solution to the biggest impediment for human beings (rather than bots) to want to buy the coin as a long-term hold. The market has been telling us for a year that it doesn’t want $GMX as the payout coin. If we give the market what it wants, the value of $GMX and the health of the protocol will improve on it’s own.

So many of the problems that GMX had these past two years came from fixing things that weren’t broken. If this new incentive scheme proposal is intended to pivot us from the existing strategy, then pivot all the way. To put it in really simple terms, the opposite of down is up. The opposite of $GMX payout is ETH payout.

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I suggest to add a minimum GMX staked to be qualified for the campaign like Aster makes.

For example : minimum 50 GMX then beyond 50 GMX it will qualify also for the multiplier

2 Likes
18

Definitely think this could be added, but like the post above states the GMX just gets resold. But that is still volume : )

The rate points are earned strongly favors GMX staking. This should be enough encouragement for staking GMX to be desired during the marketing program,

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Thank you for the reply and direct feedback. I will try to share my thoughts in order of your post.

To your first three points:

1.To earn a majority of the points they would have to be GMX stakers and produce large amounts of volume and USDC is only spent when that qualifying volume is made. The future rewards given out (if the program after the test marketing activity goes live) does not create new GMX to be sold, but would yes shift a small % to rebate the traders who stake. So the liquid GMX will be exactly the same as GMX passive earned by stakers, earned and bought from the open market with fees from volume. An equilibrium will form.

2. This is true in any marketing campaign, at least in this occurrence they are encouraged to try the platform for the first time. There are a variety of new features that fresh users should align with and stick around to trade after the marketing activity. And maybe they buy GMX to stake to reduce their fees?

3. In regards to wash trading they are paying open / close costs, borrow fees to the LP and or balancing the OI. I invite them to make a volume and test the platform and see what it is capable of. Wash trading should be a term served for volume that pays no fees.

Yes, the model being tested would shift some fees from passive GMX stakers to reward active GMX stakers. I see that as a win. For the shift to be really felt and see a 25-50% reduction in APR for GMX stakers, approximately 70-80% of the volume would have to be coming from max tier GMX stakers, and at that point wouldn’t they be the majority? What it comes down to is that a trader sees a rebate to cover what has historically been perceived as high fees, but only if they are economically aligned with the platform. Exact economic modeling of the program after the test run is currently underway and should be provided with the DAO proposal for that future program.

1a. There is a form of vesting in the model, points are earned week 1 and to convert those points they need volume week two. Think about it like this, they are producing double the volume needed for the buy back contract to buy 1 GMX… to earn 1 GMX. Feels like a net positive to me.

2a. I welcome all passive stakers to vote and come on the platform to trade.

3a. There is gamification in the permanent model that this marketing activity will test. Elements do expire, and some term requirements of GMX staking before the bonus gets activated. But that will be a DAO proposal on its own, with data from this marketing program to shape it into something ideal.

I believe the prize pool is a bit blinding, causing the focus to be on “omg they will hit and run”, but should be considered as a classic onboarding activity of “try out platform, it’ll be worth your time”. As a fully saturated token supply, GMX does not have the advantages of TGE style onboarding activities, and even those are just dumped. This program adds a much needed utility to GMX. The marketing program is an injection straight into the veins of social mindshare, and ideally the trading experience is great enough for GMX to be their new go to platform. The UX / UI changes over the last year have really made GMX a great place to trade and I believe these “farmers” will think so as well.

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Not by people who aren’t traders.

Tell you what though - in the spirt of presenting these as “new” features/attributes, you could market it as something new, ie “staked GMX will produce real yield as WETH/GMX, the next evolution of receiving $GMX as a yield. This means that per staked GMX token, a corresponding amount of WETH may be claimed based on the APR from the previous week’s fee amount.”

I think that presentation would meet the unique requirements for favorability with the DAO while coming to terms with reality on what the market is telling us it wants in order for us to be successful.

1 Like