⚠︎ Risk warning: leveraged derivatives on unregulated platforms — you can lose everything you deposit. Not investment advice.
How to Start Trading on GMX (2026): Step by Step
Mechanics verified against official GMX docs on 2026-07-22.
Perpetual futures are leveraged instruments — your entire margin can be lost quickly, and on GMX a borrowing fee accrues for as long as a position stays open. Read the risk disclosure before you fund a wallet. GMX's onboarding differs from the order-book venues in one pleasant way: there is no deposit step. You trade directly from your wallet against the liquidity pools — which also means your wallet setup is your account setup. You'll need:
- A Web3 wallet — GMX's own docs suggest Rabby for newcomers; our sister site's wallet rankings cover the choice in depth
- Funds on a chain with active GMX markets — Arbitrum, Avalanche, or MegaETH — plus the network's gas token (ETH on Arbitrum/MegaETH, AVAX on Avalanche); no gas token? GMX's Express Trading mode works without one
- Position sizing you're prepared to lose — leverage on GMX runs up to 100x, which is a ceiling, not a suggestion
From our own setup runs
Setting up the accounts behind this site's field runs, the thing that actually cost us time wasn't any exchange — it was gas. Two lessons we'd hand any occasional crypto user before their first deposit:
- Always hold the network's own coin, not just your stablecoins. Moving anything on a network costs its native gas coin — USDC on Arbitrum can't go anywhere without a little ETH on Arbitrum. A funded wallet with no gas coin is stranded: you can see your money and you can't move it. Whenever you fund a wallet, send a small amount of the gas coin (a few dollars' worth) to the same network in the same session, and top it up before it runs dry.
- Check the network against your wallet before you send. The same coin exists on many networks, and the network you pick on a withdrawal screen must be one your wallet actually supports and displays. Verify the wallet lists that network — and do a small test transfer first — before moving the real amount.
Choosing a wallet in the first place is covered by our sister site's crypto wallet rankings.
Connect — that's the whole onboarding
Open the trade page and press Connect wallet. There is no signup, no email, and no KYC step anywhere in the flow — per the official docs, "you can trade directly using the funds in your wallet — no additional setup required." One access rule to know before you connect: GMX's terms exclude US persons and sanctioned jurisdictions, and explicitly prohibit using a VPN to get around restrictions. We describe availability factually and don't cover workarounds — if the platform isn't available where you are, pick one that is.
Pick a trading mode
GMX offers three modes, set from the interface: Classic (every action signs a wallet popup, gas paid in the network token), Express (works without holding the gas token), and Express + One-Click (trades execute without per-trade signing popups, up to a number of actions you pre-authorize). One-Click is convenient and bounded by a real safety property the docs state: funds from closing or decreasing positions "can only be sent back to your wallet." A caveat for smart-wallet users (Safe and similar): only Classic mode is available.
Open a first position
On the trade page: select a market from the top-left selector, choose Long or Short, and pick an order type — Market, Limit, or Stop Market/TWAP under "More". If the market has multiple pools (say, BTC-USDC and BTC-USDT), pick one; then choose which token your collateral is stored as — in a BTC-USDC market, that can be BTC or USDC, and the choice changes how your PnL behaves. Set margin, size, and leverage (slider plus manual input; the maximum available shrinks as a pool's open interest grows). Optionally set take-profit/stop-loss triggers — noting the docs' own warning that a stop-loss is a trigger order, not a guaranteed exit: in a fast move, liquidation can fire first.
Start small: a low-leverage position sized to survive routine volatility teaches the venue's mechanics — collateral choice, borrowing fees, price impact — at tuition prices. What a trade costs is on our GMX fees breakdown: a 0.04%/0.06% position fee depending on whether you balance or imbalance the pool, plus borrowing while open. If you registered through a referral code, tier-1 gives 5% off those open/close fees — details on the GMX referral page. If the screen itself needs decoding — the pool and collateral selectors especially — our interface walkthrough explains every button with screenshots from our own account.
Manage and close
Each position row lets you close partially or fully (Market or TWAP), and the edit button next to the collateral value deposits or withdraws collateral — which directly moves your leverage and liquidation price. Because there's no exchange deposit, there's no withdrawal step either: closed-position proceeds land back in your wallet in the receive token you choose.
FAQ
Do I need to complete KYC to trade on GMX?
No. Access is wallet-connect only; no identity verification exists in the flow. The terms-level access rules (US persons excluded, sanctions lists, no VPN circumvention) are enforced as conditions of use rather than an identity check.
Do I need ETH for gas before my first trade?
Only in Classic mode (ETH on Arbitrum/MegaETH, AVAX on Avalanche). Express Trading exists precisely for wallets holding only the trading funds — per the docs, you can trade without the network's gas token.
Can I trade from Ethereum or Base?
Not directly — active markets live on Arbitrum, Avalanche, and MegaETH. The optional GMX Account feature bridges deposits from chains like Ethereum, Base, or BNB and settles trades on Arbitrum; it isn't available on Avalanche or MegaETH, and smart wallets can't use it yet.
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