A GMX chain like hyperliquid is important and necessary for GMX future. There are several reasons:
1. catch most traders in the world
First of all, we have to aware the most important business rule: where the users are, where the product goes. Imagine building houses: If you build them in a remote mountain area with sparse population, customers will be few, and the scale of construction is destined to remain small. But if you build in a densely populated city, customers will abound, and the potential scalability of the construction scale will be enormous.
Then, we have to admit a fact that most traders in the world are trading on CEX, not DEX. Why? 【 because CEX has a more better user experience than DEX 】 – extremely fast open/close speed and 0 gas fee – the two features are very important for high frequency traders and lots of small-amount traders. Even for ordinary traders, an instant open/close speed and 0 gas fee are also attractable. So most of the people trade on CEX.
Now, we can talk why hyperliquid can get a lot of traders in a short time. Hyperliquid is an exchange with 【 off-chain + on-chain 】mode. The off-chain feature makes it has a cex-like user experience – extremely fast open/close speed and 0 gas fee. And the on-chain feature takes extra advantages than CEX: : (1) no KYC required, which better protects privacy; (2) transactions are verifiable on-chain, offering greater transparency than pure CEX and reducing the moral hazards of CEX.
GMX should develop its products by targeting the world’s largest user base to ensure a sustainable future. Otherwise, products only based on a pure DEX model — no matter how optimized — will only appeal to a tiny minority of traders and will never achieve meaningful scale. It’s just like building houses in the remote mountains as in the example above: no matter how well you build them, they’ll always only cater to a small crowd.
2. a gmx chain makes GMX has the ability to meet high level trading requirements.
Quantitative trading, particularly high-frequency quant strategies, places extremely high demands on the speed of opening and closing positions. In volatile market conditions, even a delay of a few seconds can result in substantial profit erosion or amplified losses. For quant traders handling large capital pools (which most do, in reality), these cumulative losses over time become far from negligible.
Additionally, another major user group—grid trading traders—who frequently place orders back and forth amid price oscillations. The inevitable gas fees in a pure DEX model will severely erode their profits, potentially turning gains into losses.
3. chain with【 off-chain + on-chain 】mode will be the DEX trend in the future
Don’t doubt it: A hybrid DEX model in an【 off-chain + on-chain 】mode that delivers the user experience of existing CEXs, the no-KYC privacy advantages of DEXs, and the on-chain transparency and traceability of transactions, will undoubtedly become the mainstream trend for DEX exchanges in the future—because its features comprehensively address the needs of the world’s dominant user base. In fact, Hyperliquid’s rapid ascent serves as objective evidence of this.
First, that’s not the case, because Arb also has its own chain—Orbit—that follows an [off-chain + on-chain] model. GMX could build its own chain based on Orbit, which would not only significantly optimize the product to meet the needs of the world’s broadest trader base and open the door to attracting users, but also deepen its partnership with Arb.
Second, maintaining relationships is undoubtedly important (and we must thank Arb for its support of GMX), but for any project, the product itself is the core priority. Consider a hypothetical: If maintaining the relationship comes at the expense of the product’s development, leading to user exodus and eventually near-zero trading volume, the project would lose all value to the Arb chain. Conversely, if the product is done right, with user numbers and trading volume surging, the relationship with Arb would naturally strengthen. Ultimately, relationship maintenance boils down to excelling at the product itself.
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Finally, I’d like to emphasize: GMX’s [pure DEX] model and [off-chain + on-chain] model are not at odds or conflicting; they can be developed in parallel. The [off-chain + on-chain] model inevitably involves a centralized off-chain bundler, and centralization always evokes concerns about moral hazards like manipulation, misappropriation, or even “donations.” There are a small group of highly cautious users who simply won’t tolerate this risk—no matter how low—and would rather trade off some user experience in favor of the pure DEX mode.
