Evolve GMX Referral Program into Community-Driven Trading Guilds
Summary
This proposal aims to socialize the GMX referral system by rebranding a referral code as a “Guild”—community-driven referral cohorts that enable deeper engagement, dynamic incentives, and a social experience for traders. This builds on GMX’s community and strengthens GMXs competitive positioning against platforms with more aggressive fee splits.
Current Tiers:
Tier 1: 5% discount for traders, 5% rebates to affiliate
Tier 2: 10% discount for traders, 10% rebates to affiliate
Tier 3: 10% discount for traders, 15% rebates to affiliate, 5% rebates to affiliate paid in esGMX
Motivation
The first iteration of our referral program was a major success. Some of the top referrers included top referrers that had driven a lot of social mindshare. Through this initiative, we generated approximately $6.6 Billion in referral-driven growth over the last three years..
Beyond user acquisition, the referral program played a significant role in onboarding new dapps into the ecosystem by serving as an effective incentive mechanism.
Now, we aim to build on this momentum by optimizing the referral system to deliver even greater value not just in terms of user growth, but also in deepening engagement across the ecosystem by incentivizing ecosystem activities like staking, volume based discounts
Current behavior
https://dune.com/adamzjw/gmx-referral-program
A majority of 0x’s are without a code, with the 0x’s using a T1 almost equal to those using a T3. The T1 may be contributing less volume, and for unknown reasons have not swapped to a higher code, but the amount of social impact and mindshare these unmotivated traders could contribute is large. So the question is, why are there so many traders without a code? And why are T0/T1 0x’s so cavalier to disregard a better code with a higher discount. It gives the impression that the discount is unimportant to a large number of users. But this does not mean a large amount of volume is unconcerned.
https://dune.com/adamzjw/gmx-referral-program
With similar trader count, wallets using T1 codes barely generate volume. With a sizable amount of volume using no code. This reinforces that there are a large number of traders not engaged with the platform in a meaningful social way. Who could be brought back into the social aspect of the community and smaller value traders who could be excitable for smaller more direct value rewards.
Currently, a majority of GMX traders either:
-Do not use a referral code
-Use low-tier codes that don’t yield much volume
This is despite GMX offering:
-Easy access to referral codes (no min. volume)
-No cap on earnings
Meanwhile, competitors are innovating and offering:
-10–50% fee sharing with staking-Offers instant payouts, referral dashboard
-Points towards airdrops
-Gift boxes to large ref code holders
The Proposal
Introduce Guild settings, homogenize the trader discount, increase rebates, volume limits, prize fishing. This would bring:
-Shared rewards and speculation
-Fair starting conditions for all referral code creators
-Increase competitiveness of GMX ref program
-Plug value leaks
-Align whale traders
Guilds and Homogenized Discounts
-Create setting options for each referral
By enabling automatically awarded trade competition settings into the referral system, the advantages in the GMX referral program can be highlighted and low volume but numerous unengaged traders can be reengaged to make GMX’s referral program a recurring weekly event that would feature multiple dynamics allowing each code to have an equal entry but a totally unique weekly impact.
-Homogenize discount to trader across tiers
Below is a suggested refactoring of the referral tiers, this proposal suggests making the trader discount at all tiers 10%. As in the dune charts above, it’s either a Tier 3 code or nothing. Next the affiliate rebate has a part of its reward redirected to the prize pool for whatever activity setting the referrer has chosen for his “Guild”. EsGMX is would be removed from the Tier 3 rewards, to be used in a different function described later.
New tier formats and club share:
New Referral Code Rebate Structure (Optional)
Tier 1: 10% discount for traders, 4% rebates to affiliate, 1% to Guild rebate
Tier 2: 10% discount for traders, 8% rebates to affiliate, 2% to Guild rebate
Tier 3: 10% discount for traders, 11% rebates to affiliate, 4% to Guild rebate
-Conditions to progress through tiers will remain as they currently are.
-Affiliates can opt out to keep 100% of rebates (no changes from current model)
-esGMX no longer pays out to Tier 3
Each code tier rewards the same flat 10% discount to traders as from above data the discount seems superficial to the vast majority of 0x’s (not volume). This allows new referral code creators a level playing field and removes a large barrier to entry for new users who want to share a referral code.
The rebates to affiliates are slightly reduced, in the spirit that more reasons to trade equates to more volume and overall more rebates for the code owner. The trim in affiliate rebates allows for value to flow back to the traders and gives speculative reasons for low value traders to show up and trade weekly. The rebate amount and total discount can be higher, options during the vote could decide the final total percent.
-The Guild settings (Ref code settings)
Guild custom behavior settings that make each referral code unique:
These settings are enabled by the referrer and will each have their own conditions that see the users of the code eligible for bonus rebates within the community. Suggested settings are: “Trading Comp”, “No Berry Left Behind”, “Kingmaker”, and Opt-out. Each of these settings are designed to attract or retain a range of traders that have their own goals.
Weekly Guild Settings (Selected by Affiliate):
-Trading Comp – top PnL, volume, or risk-adjusted return wins X % of club rebate pool
-No Berry Left Behind – all rebates are averaged to users with negative PnL
-Kingmaker – one random trader receives the entire club rebate pool, min volume to qualify
-Opt-out – legacy behavior (full rebates to affiliate)
Increase Rebates
-Should a large discount be given to ref codes?
Currently GMX offers the smallest percentage of fees to its referrers, with some centralized exchanges offering up to 50% of fees. Other decentralized exchanges are offering high rates for referrals who hold its tokens, or just a flat out higher share. With the introduction of guilds, the total discount to traders and referrer share should be addressed and evaluated. With the above Dune reports showing a large percent of volume is not using a code, this proposal will suggest the increased discount goes directly to the referrer and Guild setting rewards. This proposal looks to vote on increasing the total discount and increasing the total fee’s going to referrers.
Volume Limits
-Should legacy ref codes earn forever with no GMX holdings?
Entrenched referral codes who have moved on from actively increasing the mind share of GMX and no longer have a stake in the protocol by holding no GMX currently have unlimited benefit from a referral code. This goes against the standard of current exchanges is a net negative to the users who have a stake. The possible increase in total fees paid to referrers balances this limit. This proposal suggests adding volume limits to referral codes who do not stake GMX, by placing volume limits on referrers who do not have set amounts of GMX staked.
Prize Fishing
-Bring a sense of urgency and give esGMX to traders and not just T3 code holders
Currently esGMX is currently paid out at a flat 5% to tier 3 traders with a cut off value per period. Inflation of the GMX supply should come with a sizable benefit to the GMX community. This Proposal suggests esGMX only be mined by positions of size, encouraging referrals or traders using their own code to make a more tangible effort to attract quality traders. This also allows traders of size to align themselves with the value of GMX. The current issuance limit of 5,000 esGMX would stay in place, giving a sense of urgency to collecting the rewards first. The size of a position needed to qualify for esGMX rebates on fees is up to the DAO vote, but some easy milestones are $1,000,000,00 total size as the smallest option. esGMX would be paid to the trader and the ref code holder, with a 50/50 split. As there is a limit of 5,000 esGMX it would need to be decided if its first come first serve or an even split between qualified volume for that week. An example of a possible workable formula to see the weekly reward for traders and their ref code holder is (2,500/all qualified volume) where each dollar of volume competes for a cut of the 5k esGMX, leading to when there are weeks of low whale volume the esGMX payout would be very high and drive last minute positions of size to open to farm esGMX.
What impact could these changes have?
A successful outcome of these changes would see medium to small referral code sharers as a more attractive offering against large code tiers. This would also offer larger code tiers the chance to differentiate themselves from the pack depending on their club settings. One bull case that can be imagined, is trading inside a guild with a whale trader while the guild has the “Kingmaker” setting for the Guild. The generated social mindshare / hype / speculation / of who might win $1,000-$10,000 in shared fees that week just for opening a perp of minimum volume would make GMX very current and attractive to traders who only use other decentralized exchanges to farm points. The minimum volume to qualify for the chance to win would mean that every whale trader in a “Kingmaker” setting would generate a wake of volume in its Guild.
In Closing
These changes:
-Gives smaller traders a reason to care about referral codes
-Decentralizes influence beyond top-tier influencers
-Creates weekly speculative events on X/Twitter
-Encourages active engagement and discussion
-Helps low-volume users feel seen
-Makes referral codes part of the community story, not just a passive link
-Drives whale volume
Implementation
-Runs parallel to current system (backward-compatible)
-Payout automation possible via existing weekly snapshot system
-Affiliate interface can include a dropdown to set weekly behavior
Example of options that could be considered:
Enable Guilds, homogenize traders discount and Increase total discount as rebates:
No
Yes - No increase to the rebate given to the referrer
Yes - Increase current rebates by 5% on all tiers, if yes on Guild: 3% to Affiliate 2% more to Guild
Yes - Increase current rebates by 10% on all tiers, if yes on Guild: 6% to Affiliate 4% more to Guild
Yes - Increase current rebates by 15% on all tiers, if yes on Guild: 9% to Affiliate 6% more to Guild
Volume Limits:
No
Yes - 10,000,000, Volume limit per 0x per 1,000 GMX staked
Yes - 25,000,000, Volume limit per 0x per 1,000 GMX staked
Yes - 50,000,000, Volume limit per 0x per 1,000 GMX staked
Yes - 50,000,000, Volume limit per 0x per 1,000 GMX staked, No Limits after 5,000 GMX
Size Prizes
No
Yes - Referred Positions over $500,000 earn a bonus in esGMX to referrer and trader
Yes - Referred Positions over $1,000,000 earn a bonus in esGMX to referrer and trader
Yes - Referred Positions over $2,500,000 earn a bonus in esGMX to referrer and trader