# GMX Alternatives in 2026

The Perp Reference maintainers · Updated: 24 September 2026 · Readings taken 20 September 2026 · Venue documents read 18 September 2026

## Abstract

Six gmx alternatives are ranked here, all of them order books rather than pools: Aster and Extended
share the top at 5.5 of 7, and edgeX held the most resting
size, $29.5 million within 10 basis points. GMX quotes an index price against its own pools,
which is why it is described here and not ranked.

Weights: Order-book liquidity 30 · Market coverage 20 · Trading cost 18 · Security record 14 · Custody and settlement 12 · Access 6. One formula scores every entry, fixed on 22 September 2026 and never adjusted: https://thekiddushclubnft.com/scoring-method

## Six GMX alternatives with an order book, ranked on one formula

Ordered by the overall total on the six criteria this reference uses. GMX carries no total: the heaviest criterion is the size resting on a public book, and a pool publishes none.

| No. | Venue | Score of 7 | Maker / taker | Perpetual markets | Model |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1= | Aster | 5.5 | 0% / 0.040% | 578 | Own layer 1, operator-run |
| 1= | Extended | 5.5 | 0% / 0.025% | 325 | Hybrid |
| 3 | edgeX | 5.3 | 0.040% / 0.045% | 172 | Hybrid |
| 4 | Hyperliquid | 5.0 | 0.015% / 0.045% | 324 | On-chain order book |
| 5= | ApeX Omni | 4.7 | 0.020% / 0.050% | 125 | Hybrid |
| 5= | EVEDEX | 4.7 | 0.015% / 0.045% | 52 | Hybrid |

Facts as of 18 September 2026; fees are the entry tier on the BTC perpetual and market counts are each venue's own. Access differs by country: the terms binding on you are the ones to read before a deposit.

## What the table shows

1. Two prices, two bills: GMX charges 0.04% or 0.06% of size to open and again to close, plus the impact its pool settles at the end; these books charge up to 0.050% to cross.
2. The cap belongs to the pool: GMX documents up to 100x and says the maximum falls as open interest grows; the ladders here are written against a position size.
3. The markets a pool user comes for are on the books too: EVEDEX lists Tether Gold, silver and WTI crude, Extended and Aster run equities and indices, and 93 of edgeX's contracts are shares or funds.
4. Depth is the question a pool cannot answer: these books held $1.8 million to $29.5 million within 10 basis points of the BTC mid on 20 September 2026.

## What the six books held when we read them

A book fills from orders somebody left resting, where a pool fills from liquidity it holds itself. This is what was resting, read on a ten-minute clock across the two days to 20 September 2026.

| Venue | Resting within 10 bps | Impact, $100,000 | Snapshots |
|---|---|---|---|
| edgeX | $29.5 million | 0.02 bps | 113 |
| EVEDEX | $18.3 million | 2.06 bps | 115 |
| Aster | $16.1 million | 0.38 bps | 117 |
| Hyperliquid | $9.6 million | 0.06 bps | 118 |
| Extended | $7.4 million | 0.06 bps | 115 |
| ApeX Omni | $1.8 million | 0.38 bps | 118 |

Read from each public order book, not from reported volume. No account was opened and no order was placed.

## Where the price comes from, and what a fill pays for

One row per venue, from its own documentation, read on 18 September 2026.

| Venue | What sets the price | What a fill pays | What reaches a chain |
|---|---|---|---|
| GMX | An oracle index price, filled from GM and GLV pools | 0.04% or 0.06% each way, plus impact, funding and a keeper fee | Positions, on Arbitrum, Avalanche or MegaETH |
| Aster | Its own order book | 0% maker / 0.040% taker | Every trade, on Aster Chain |
| Extended | Its own order book | 0% maker / 0.025% taker | Every transaction, on Starknet |
| edgeX | Its own order book | 0.040% maker / 0.045% taker | Balances and trades, on EDGE |
| Hyperliquid | An order book inside its chain | 0.015% maker / 0.045% taker | Every order, trade and liquidation |
| EVEDEX | Its own order book | 0.015% maker / 0.045% taker | Position data on Arbitrum, once changes build up |
| ApeX Omni | Its own order book | 0.020% maker / 0.050% taker | Matched trades, proven to zkLink |

Margin is the whole of what a perpetual can cost, and the multiple decides how little it takes.

## 1=. Aster — the longest market list off the pool

5.5 of 7 · BTC 200x to 400 USDT · Wallet signature or email

Aster matches and settles on Aster Chain, its own proof-of-stake layer 1, live since 16 March 2026
([Aster docs](https://docs.asterdex.com/overview/what-is-aster.md), checked 18 September 2026). It lists 578 perpetual markets against the
103 GMX carries on Arbitrum; resting costs nothing, crossing
0.040%.

- In favour: 578 perpetual markets, the longest list here; Seven published audits and an Immunefi bounty up to $200,000.
- Noted against: Core chain contracts and node infrastructure are not open-sourced; No external validators in the first phase of that chain.
- Not for: a trader who needs that chain checkable from outside.

## 1=. Extended — one flat schedule across five asset classes

5.5 of 7 · BTC 50x to $4 million · Wallet signature, EVM or Starknet

Extended keeps its own book and writes every transaction to Starknet, the collateral in
self-custodial contracts ([Extended docs](https://docs.extended.exchange/about-extended/technical-architecture), checked 18 September 2026). One schedule prices every account
at 0% maker / 0.025% taker, over a list running from coins to equities, currencies, commodities and
indices. Of 325 active markets, 278 are quoted on request.

- In favour: One rate for every account, with no volume ladder; A bounty up to $500,000, and audited collateral contracts.
- Noted against: 278 of 325 markets show an indicative book only; No withdrawal without the operator is documented.
- Not for: a market that only quotes on request.

## 3. edgeX — the deepest book in the readings

5.3 of 7 · BTC 100x to $1 million · Wallet or MPC login

edgeX matches away from the chain and settles balances and trades on EDGE, the rollup it runs
([edgeX docs](https://pro.edgex.exchange/en-US/home), checked 18 September 2026); its self-custody page documents a withdrawal made by calling
the contracts directly. Its BTC book held $29.5 million within 10 basis points, the most we
read, and 93 of its 172 contracts are shares or funds.

- In favour: The deepest book in the readings, $29.5 million within 10 basis points; A withdrawal that skips the operator, written into the documentation.
- Noted against: A 0.040% maker fee, the dearest here; 113 readings against a median of 117, the shortest sample here.
- Not for: a resting order priced at the entry tier.

## 4. Hyperliquid — the book itself inside a chain

5.0 of 7 · BTC 40x to $150 million · Wallet signature or email code

Hyperliquid keeps the book on chain: every order, cancel, trade and liquidation executes in
HyperCore with one-block finality ([Hyperliquid docs](https://hyperliquid.gitbook.io/hyperliquid-docs/about-hyperliquid.md), checked 18 September 2026). It reported
$8.7 billion of open interest on 22 September 2026 over a book holding
$9.6 million within 10 basis points, at 0.015% maker / 0.045% taker.

- In favour: The order book runs inside the chain's own consensus; A bounty up to 1 million USDC for a critical report.
- Noted against: Both published audits cover the 2023 deposit bridge; Its own vault lost about $4 million in March 2025 and $4.9 million in November 2025.
- Not for: a reader who wants every listed market reviewed.

## 5=. ApeX Omni — a documented exit, and the thinnest book here

4.7 of 7 · BTC 100x to $100,000 · Wallet, or email with a Privy wallet

ApeX Omni runs its own book and passes matched trades to zkLink, whose contracts hold the deposits
and document a forced exit to the layer below ([ApeX Omni docs](https://docs.zk.link/architecture/transactionflow), checked 18 September 2026). Thirty-nine
of its 125 markets are shares, commodities or funds, and its BTC book held
$1.8 million within 10 basis points, thinnest of the six.

- In favour: A forced exit to layer 1 through the zkLink contracts; A $100,000 order moved its price 0.38 bps.
- Noted against: $1.8 million within 10 basis points, the thinnest here; The published audits cover the 2023 rollup, not the trading system.
- Not for: an order that has to fill in one go at the quote.

## 5=. EVEDEX — metals, oil, currencies and share perpetuals on one balance

4.7 of 7 · BTC 200x to $50,000 · Wallet signature

EVEDEX matches off the chain, and Arbitrum takes position data once enough changes have built up,
plus one write per withdrawal (per the EVEDEX documentation, 18 September 2026). Its
52 markets make the shortest list here, in a shape a pool user recognises: 39
coin markets beside Tether Gold, silver, WTI crude, two currency pairs, five US shares, an index
and two pre-IPO contracts. Fees are 0.015% maker / 0.045% taker.

- In favour: One cross-margined balance covers coins, metals, oil, currencies and shares; A median $18.3 million within 10 basis points, second here.
- Noted against: 52 perpetual markets, the shortest list here; Position data reaches Arbitrum in batches, not trade by trade; No bug bounty listed on CertiK Skynet, read 18 September 2026.
- Not for: a trader who came for a long tail of small-cap coins.

## Quotations

> "The position fee is 0.04% or 0.06% of the position size. It applies when opening, closing, increasing, or partially decreasing a position." — GMX documentation, Trading fees, 18 September 2026. https://docs.gmx.io/docs/trading/fees/
> "The max allowed leverage of a pool decreases as the total open interest of the pool increases." — GMX documentation, Order types, 18 September 2026. https://docs.gmx.io/docs/trading/order-types/
> "GOLD/USD, SILVER/USD, WTIOIL/USD, BRENTOIL/USD, NATGAS/USD, SPCX/USD, QQQ/USD, and SPY/USD are available under the TradFi category in the market dropdown." — GMX documentation, Trading overview, 18 September 2026. https://docs.gmx.io/docs/trading/overview/
## FAQ

### What are the best alternatives to GMX?

Six order-book venues are ranked here. Aster and Extended share the top at 5.5 of
7, edgeX held the deepest BTC book, and EVEDEX carries the metals, oil,
currency and share markets a pool user comes for. Which one fits depends on the market you trade.

### Is GMX an order book exchange?

No. GMX quotes an oracle index price and fills from its GM and GLV pools instead of matching
orders, which is why it carries no total here: the heaviest criterion is the dollar depth resting
within 10 basis points of the mid, and that has to be read off a public book.

### How much does GMX charge to open a position?

0.04% of position size when the trade reduces the imbalance between longs and shorts, 0.06% when
it increases it, charged on the way in and again on the way out. Price impact settles at the
close, the larger side pays a borrow fee, and a keeper fee covers execution.

### Why does GMX leverage fall as the pool fills?

Because the cap belongs to the pool, not to the position. GMX documents up to 100x and states that
the maximum falls as the pool's open interest grows. The ladders here are written against position
size instead: 200x to $50,000 at EVEDEX, 40x to $150 million at Hyperliquid.

### Which perp DEX lists gold, oil and index perpetuals?

All six list something beyond coins. EVEDEX lists Tether Gold, silver and WTI crude beside five US
shares, an index and two pre-IPO contracts; Extended and Aster run equities, currencies,
commodities and indices; edgeX counts 93 share and fund contracts, ApeX Omni 39. Each is a
contract on a price, not the asset.

### What happened to GMX in July 2025?

A vulnerability in the GMX V1 deployment on Arbitrum let about $42 million of the roughly
$46 million held in GLP be withdrawn to an outside wallet on 9 July 2025. The funds were returned
and handled as a bug bounty, and V1 was paused and later retired.

### Does GMX ask for identity documents?

Its documentation describes access as permissionless: no identity check, no key to request, any
wallet trading immediately. Sign-in is a wallet connection or a passkey wallet with no email
address or seed phrase behind it. The venues ranked here open on a wallet signature too.

### What is price impact on a pool venue?

The charge a pool makes for pushing its own balance further out of line. GMX settles it when a
position closes, caps negative impact at 50 basis points on the BTC, ETH and SOL markets and as
high as 1,000 on thin ones, and returns anything above the cap after five days.

### Which GMX alternative has the deepest BTC book?

edgeX, at a median $29.5 million resting within 10 basis points of the BTC mid price when
we read it on 20 September 2026, then EVEDEX at $18.3 million and
Aster at $16.1 million. One instrument over one series of readings is not a standing
property.

### Do order-book venues charge funding as well?

Yes, and it is not a fee the venue keeps: funding passes between the long and short sides of a
market. EVEDEX computes a rate every eight hours and settles an eighth of it hourly, while GMX
adapts its own rate with the imbalance between the two sides.

### What is auto-deleveraging?

Closing part of a position in profit to keep the other side of the market solvent. GMX documents
it as a protection for pool solvency when pending profit grows too large against the pool. EVEDEX
has kept a $500,000 reserve behind the same mechanism since 18 July 2026.

### How many markets does GMX list?

103 distinct perpetual symbols on Arbitrum when we counted them on
18 September 2026, collapsed from 117 listed pools that share index symbols; Avalanche adds 12
of its own and MegaETH four, mostly the same assets. Aster lists 578 by
comparison, and EVEDEX 52.

## The making of this entry

One formula of six criteria, fixed on 22 September 2026 before an entry was written and applied to all
6 venues ([how we rate](/scoring-method)). Fees, market lists, ladders and audit
histories come from each venue's own documentation, read 18 September 2026; the depth is our own,
read on a ten-minute clock across the two days to 20 September 2026. Nothing deposited, no order sent.

Read, not tested: custody, screening and the security record are a venue's account of itself. Fees
are the entry tier, before volume tiers or rebates. Depth was measured on one instrument, the BTC
perpetual, in one series of readings; one book answered fewer times than the rest. Not investment
advice. GMX is described from its own documentation and carries no total: the
heaviest criterion reads resting orders, and a pool has none.

Each venue is linked from its entry heading above. Open interest and the previous day's volume come from CoinMarketCap, captured 22 September 2026. Corrections: corrections@thekiddushclubnft.com.

The Perp Reference maintainers, 24 September 2026

The maintainers are paid to publish this reference, and a venue with an entry here may be the party that paid for it.