Hi GMX community!
I represent the team at Stimpak, a defi platform that is soon releasing our first product: Duels. Duels is a competitive trading platform built entirely on top of GMX that gamifies the experience and allows traders to build rank while challenging others in head to head or tournament style events.
We understand that there are not any active grants being issues, but wanted to at least introduce ourselves here and to engage with the community. We’re currently testing the platform in testnet, and will share alpha slots in July-ish timeframe. If you are interested in being an early tester, please visit the app and submit an email for us to follow up!
Here’s our most recent update:
What Are Duels?
Duels is a PvP trading arena built by Stimpak and powered by GMX, that lets traders compete head-to-head using crypto perpetuals — think of it as Player-vs-Player meets high-stakes decentralized trading.
Players stake USDC, specify collateral, leverage, buy-ins, and duration, then enter the arena. The trader with the best performance — or highest “health bar” — wins the pot.
A Duels trader community is fertile ground for GMX’s multichain expansion.
An early preview of Duels
How Duels Work (Quick Breakdown)
Create or Join a Duel: Choose a collateral amount, time, duration (1 hr–7 days), buy-in, and participant limits. Join by paying the buy-in and depositing collateral.
Trading Battle Begins: When the Duel starts, participants open/close leveraged perpetual trades (e.g., ETH/USD). Profit increases “health”; losses decrease it. A live leaderboard watches performance, plus chat and banter fuel the experience.
Settlement: Highest realized PnL wins. Winner takes ~95% of the pot in USDC; others withdraw remaining collateral. Stimpak earns the remaining 5% as platform fees.
Why Duels Amplify the GMX Ecosystem
1. Competitive Edge Attracts More Traders
Duels adds gamification and peer competition — drawing in both thrill-seekers and serious traders. Greater trader activity increases GMX’s trading volume and fees, which benefit LPs and GMX stakers alike.
Competitions are known to increase trader’s appetite and have been used in the ecosystem before to bring on newcomers. The GMX governance forums make several recent mentions of using competitions in this way for the multichain rollout, Solana expansion, and in reference to the Blueberry Club’s Trading Tournaments.
2. Leverage GMX’s Deep Liquidity & Security
Duels runs on GMX’s liquidity pools and Chainlink pricing, offering deep liquidity, minimal slippage, and robust on-chain price feeds. This gives participants a secure, high-performance environment to battle it out.
3. Layered Rewards for All Roles
Whether you’re trading in Duels, providing liquidity, or staking GMX, you touch more of the ecosystem. Duels trades volume generate base fees on GMX; LPs benefit from deeper markets and fee distribution; stakers get more protocol revenue.
4. Community Expansion through Gamified DeFi
Duels introduces social elements — chat, leagues, leaderboard badges — driving engagement. GMX’s ecosystem, already trader-focused, can now tap into tournament-style participation and community-driven fun.
5. New Gateway for Funding & Comarketing
GMX & Stimpak aligning on Duels opens doors for co-branded tournaments, shared liquidity incentives, prize pools, and marketing activation. A Duels trader community is fertile ground for GMX’s multichain expansion.
Synergies: Duels + GMX = Ecosystem Acceleration
Scaling Competitive Trading for the Multichain Future
As GMX rolls out major upgrades — Express, Multichain, and V2.3 — it’s the perfect time for Duels to level up too. Duels is built to seamlessly integrate and thrive alongside GMX’s multi-faceted growth, supercharging user adoption, liquidity, and engagement.
- GMX Express → Lowers friction → Easier entry → Higher tournament participation
- Multichain → New user bases across chains → Broader liquidity → More engaging Ad-hoc Duels events
- V2.3 → Richer collateral pools → Bigger duels + deeper markets → Elevated LP & trader engagement
1. GMX Express: Ultra-Smooth, Gas-Free Trades
What’s new on GMX?
GMX Express launched in June 2025, introducing gas abstraction (via Gelato + keeper bots) to eliminate wallet pop-ups and congestion delays — enabling near–gasless, one-click trades on Arbitrum and Avalanche. You can read the in depth release blog here.
Although Duels is not directly affected by this upgrade, it is a move in the right direction for user experience, and the Stimpak team aims to continue to improve onchain trading alongside GMX. Our keeper architecture already guarantees the best possible execution times!
2. GMX Multichain Flywheel: Duels on Every Chain
What’s unfolding?
GMX is expanding to new EVM chains using LayerZero and CCIP — allowing cross-chain trading while sharing unified liquidity on Arbitrum.
How Duels is ready:
- Distributed tournaments: Duels will be expanded, and soon you will be able to launch and join them from any chain — Avalanche, Base, even future hubs.
- Unified collateral & messaging: Our protocol is built for GMX users. We are committed to updating alongside them as the team introduces cross-chain collateral setups — ensuring funds and event state stay synced across networks.
The result? A decentralized arena where anyone, anywhere, can duel using the best of GMX liquidity.
3. GMX V2.3: Cross-Collateral Duels, Bigger Tournaments 
What’s coming in V2.3?
Cross-collateral, cross-margin, volume scaling, and deeper liquidity pools are on the horizon.
Why it matters to Duels:
- Flexible buy-ins: Use mixed assets (BTC, ETH, USDC) for richer wagering structures.
- Deeper tournaments: Larger prize pools and LP-backed matches are viable.
- Advanced strategy: Traders can employ sophisticated leveraged bets across collateral sets.
In Summary
GMX’s ecosystem is evolving faster than ever — and Duels is architected to grow with it.
- Express delivers the gas-free ease traders love.
- Multichain lets Duels reach new users on every EVM chain.
- V2.3 unlocks larger, more strategic competitions.
Together, we transform Duels into GMX’s community-built flagship competitive arena — supercharging volume, liquidity, and community engagement across chains. Let’s make PvP perpetual trading the MVP of DeFi.
