GMX vs Lighter

GMX leads on 5 of 11 shared benchmarks, Lighter on 6. GMX wins on Perp DEX cost invariance (1.000x vs 5.19x), Perp DEX token P/E ratio 2026 (4.84x vs 63.1x), Perp DEX price to fees (1.338x vs 13.0x), Perp DEX volume to open interest (1.450x vs 4.14x). Lighter wins on Cheapest perp DEX, live all-in cost from $1k to $1M on ETH, BTC and SOL (0.0025% vs 0.060%), Perp DEX volume share, live 24h notional ranked ($2.43B vs $82.61M), Perp DEX mark price fidelity (0.060% vs 0.086%), Perp DEX security track record (1,197 vs 458). Data as of 2026-10-09 UTC.

Read methodology Last measured Window: rolling 24h11 shared benchmarks
GMX logo
GMX

Perp DEX on Arbitrum and Avalanche. Pool-based execution against GLP and GM vaults, oracle-priced trades with no orderbook.

Lighter logo
Lighter

Onchain perp DEX with a fully onchain orderbook on a zkSync rollup. ZK proofs verify matching, no off-chain sequencer for trade execution.

Daily perp volume, head to head

Perpetual notional per closed UTC day, the DeFiLlama day buckets, read from each venue's own data. Ribbon under the bars marks which venue printed more that day.

Bench 266, all venues

7d lead

Lighter

$301M vs $15.13B

30d lead

Lighter

$1.43B vs $58.05B

Days led, last 30

0 / 30

GMX / Lighter

Current streak

90 days

Lighter since Jul 11, 2026

GMXLighter

UTC days, one side per trade

01.3B2.5B3.8B5BJul 11Oct 8lead

GMX volume ÷ Lighter volume, week by week

The ratio of the two venues' seven-day perp volume, in percent; a window is shown only when both sides have every day closed. 100% is parity. The dashed line is the median of the weeks shown; the last window is the 7d tile above.

2.0% · week to 8 Oct · median 13.7%

GMX ÷ Lighter, seven-day windows ending on the last closed day

0%50%100%median 14%25 Jun9 Jul23 Jul6 Aug20 Aug3 Sep17 Sep1 Oct8 Oct

2 Oct to 8 Oct

GMX ÷ Lighter2.0%
vs median-11.7pt
= GMX volume$301.4M
÷ Lighter volume$15.13B
WindowGMXLighterGMX / Lighter
Last closed day (Oct 8, 2026)$75.0M$3.49B2%
Last 7 days$301M$15.13B2%
Last 30 days$1.43B$58.05B2%

Sources: GMX, GMX V2 synthetics squids, marginVolumeUsd (perps only, swaps excluded), Arbitrum + Avalanche + Botanix + MegaETH. Lighter, Lighter 1d candles quote volume summed over perp markets (market_id < 2048), zkLighter mainnet + Robinhood chain deployment. Days where either venue has not closed are left blank rather than counted as zero. Last closed day common to both: Oct 8, 2026. Methodology and every venue on bench 266.

Side by side measurements

Perp DEX security track record: days without a recorded exploit, live

Trading

GMX

Trails

458

p99
458
rank
#6
samples
2,880

Lighter

Leads

1,197

p99
1,197
rank
#2
samples
2,880
Days since last exploit
GMXn/aLightern/a

This benchmark counts recorded incidents only. Absence from the registry does not prove a protocol is exploit-free: it means no incident matching the criteria (direct theft or loss of user funds via a security vulnerability) has been documented in the tracked sources as of the registry timestamp shown on each row. The registry is human-curated and updated when a new incident is confirmed. The registry date and source links are embedded in the harness.

Rolling 24h · Days since last exploitRaw JSON

Perp DEX asset breadth: non-crypto markets live, stocks + indices + forex + commodities

Trading

GMX

Trails

8

p99
8
rank
#13
samples
2,880

Lighter

Leads

38

p99
38
rank
#11
samples
2,880
Non-crypto markets
GMXn/aLightern/a

Counts reflect each venue's live market catalog at query time, mainnet only. The asset class comes from the venue's own metadata where it publishes one; Hyperliquid HIP-3 dexes and dYdX publish none, so their symbols are matched against the crypto markets the other venues list and a fixed table of forex, commodity and index names. Tokenized gold (PAXG, XAUT) is a crypto token and is not counted. A market counts once whether it trades 24/7 or only during exchange hours.

Rolling 24h · Non-crypto marketsRaw JSON

Perp DEX token P/E ratio 2026: Hyperliquid, Lighter, GMX, dYdX, GNS live

Trading

GMX

Leads

4.84x

p99
4.84x
rank
#2
samples
2,880

Lighter

Trails

63.1x

p99
63.1x
rank
#7
samples
2,880
P/E ratio
GMXn/aLightern/a

P/E = fully diluted valuation (CoinGecko) divided by annualized protocol revenue (DeFiLlama dailyRevenue, 30-day trailing average x365). Protocol revenue = fees accruing to the treasury or token holders, not total user fees. Tokens without a CoinGecko listing show no P/E. FDV reflects total supply at current price, not circulating supply; tokens with large unvested allocations will show inflated FDV-based P/E. Updated hourly.

Perp DEX price to fees: what the market pays per dollar of trading fees

Trading
ProviderP/F ratioFDV / feesP/SFees 30dRevenue 30dFloatOpen interestFees / OI
GMX1.338x1.338x4.84x$5.48M$1.52M100.0%$58.43M1.142x
Lighter13.0x51.9x15.8x$5.75M$4.73M25.0%$577.66M0.121x
View
GMXn/aLightern/a

P/F = circulating market cap (CoinGecko) / annualized fees (DeFiLlama dailyFees, trailing 30d x 365/30), on the DeFiLlama parent the token accrues from. Fees include the share paid to liquidity providers; P/S uses protocol revenue only. Low-float tokens show a much higher FDV/F than P/F. Pre-TGE venues are listed unranked with fees and OI, no ratio. A low multiple is not a recommendation.

Perp DEX daily volume 2026: Hyperliquid, Aster, Lighter, GMX, Gains, dYdX by UTC day, backfilled

Trading
ProviderDaily perp volumeVolume 30dShare 30d
GMX$75.00M$1.43B0.37%
Lighter$3.49B$58.05B15.2%
View
GMXn/aLightern/a

Volume is self-reported by each venue's public data surface and counted per UTC day, one side of each trade. Perimeters differ slightly per venue and are stated in the ledger notes. A closed day can be restated by a venue for one to two days; the harness re-reads the last three days every hour. Not a measure of organic flow: incentive programs and wash trading inflate notional on every venue.

Rolling 24h · Daily perp volumeRaw JSON

Perp DEX volume to open interest: 24h turnover per dollar of OI, live

Trading

GMX

Leads

1.450x

p99
1.478x
rank
#8
samples
2,880

Lighter

Trails

4.14x

p99
5.10x
rank
#18
samples
2,880
Volume / OI (24h)
GMXn/aLightern/a

The ratio is a screen, not a verdict. Both terms are the venue's own figures (24h volume and open interest as each API reports them, in USD), so a venue that counts both legs of a fill moves its ratio without changing anything real. A very low ratio (Ostium, 0.2x) means positions held for days on thin daily volume; a very high one (Kalshi, above 40x) means a day of trading dwarfs what stays open. The bands in the methodology say what each range usually means.

Rolling 24h · Volume / OI (24h)Raw JSON

Price to fees across DeFi: what the market pays per dollar of protocol fees

Trading
ProviderP/F ratiovs categoryFees MoMToken 30dFloatFDV / feesMarket capFees 30dRevenue 30dP/STVLSupply 30dSupply 90d
GMX1.310x0.170x8.67%2.61%100.0%1.310x$89.19M$5.59M$1.54M4.76x$241.27M0.12%0.33%
Lighter13.0x1.686x14.7%-25.0%51.8x$906.57M$5.75M$4.73M15.8x$747.96M--
View
GMXn/aLightern/a

A screen, not a verdict, and not advice. P/F = circulating market cap (CoinGecko) / annualized fees (DeFiLlama, trailing 30d x 365/30) summed across every fee adapter that accrues to the token. Fees include the share paid to liquidity providers. A low multiple can mean the market expects fees to fall, that the fees were incentivised, or that the token has no claim on them. Read it with the float, the category median and the monthly fee trend, then do your own work.

Frequently asked questions

GMX vs Lighter: which one is better?

GMX and Lighter are compared on 11 shared OpenChainBench benchmarks. GMX leads on Perp DEX cost invariance. Lighter leads on Cheapest perp DEX, live all-in cost from $1k to $1M on ETH, BTC and SOL. See the live table on this page for every metric.

Which has the lower cost slope ($1m / $1k), GMX or Lighter?

On the Perp DEX cost invariance benchmark, GMX leads at 1.000x versus Lighter at 5.19x. Live measurement is updated continuously by the OpenChainBench harness.

Which is cheaper, GMX or Lighter?

On the Cheapest perp DEX, live all-in cost from $1k to $1M on ETH, BTC and SOL benchmark, Lighter leads at 0.0025% versus GMX at 0.060%. Live measurement is updated continuously by the OpenChainBench harness.

How is the GMX vs Lighter comparison measured?

Every benchmark on this page uses the same open methodology, published at https://openchainbench.com/methodology. Data is CC-BY-4.0. Measurement harnesses are MIT-licensed.

Related comparisons

How this pair was selected

Auto-generated pairs require: both providers in the same benchmark for seven consecutive days, at least 1000 samples per provider, observable third-party search demand, and a public /products/[slug] page on OCB. Editorially curated pairs (like this one) may publish early when search demand is high and data is accruing; panels with fewer than 100 samples are shown as provisional. The full pair ledger is versioned in the public repo.

Live data refreshes via ISR within 60 seconds of a new run. Sources are the same Prometheus queries surfaced on the parent benchmark pages.