GMX Drops 24% in 1 Month, Whales Rapidly Selling: What’s Going On?

GMX, the native token powering GMX, a decentralized perpetual exchange for trading complex crypto derivatives, is under intense selling pressure when writing on August 11.

Trackers show that the governance token is down 7% on the last trading day, pushing monthly losses to 24%. This downturn has seen prices tumble close to $40, a critical support level last printed in January and June 2023. 

Despite this setback, DeFiLlama’s data is stable as GMX’s Total Value Locked (TVL) remains over $534 million. Most of the trading platform’s liquidity is locked in Arbitrum, a layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum. Additionally, another portion is locked on Avalanche, a fourth-generation Ethereum-compatible smart contract platform focused on decentralized finance (DeFi).

The sell-off on August 11 coincides with actions by GMX “whales.” According to Lookonchain data, four whales sold 62,274 GMX worth $3 million. Address “0xb824” liquidated 19,786 GMX, translating to 514 ETH, and “0xa38a” sold 11,667 GMX for 305 ETH, losing $50,000 in the process. Meanwhile, “0X85b7” sold 20,000 GMX for 510 ETH, and “0x0b80” mirrored this move, dumping 10,820 GMX.

Whales are selling amid a constant decline in TVL in DeFi. This contraction can be traced to the general cool-off from late 2021, when crypto prices peaked before dropping in 2022, crashing on-chain activity, especially in DeFi. At spot rates, it is changing hands at $46, an almost 50% decline from $91 registered in Q2 of 2023. Even so, the token is up nearly 4X from its all-time low.

Whales’ action, nonetheless, could send ripples of uncertainty throughout the GMX and DeFi communities. Crypto traders actively keep track of whale activity. Usually, when they sell, as was the case today, it could sow fear, leading others to follow suit, heaping more pressure on prices.

On August 6, GMX released the v2 version in beta on Arbitrum and Avalanche. The exchange said this version introduces several enhancements, including support for more assets, including XRP. With v2, users can also utilize diverse collateral types for trading positions while trading more quickly with reduced fees and lower slippage. 

With v2, the exchange adds, is the introduction of isolated pools for liquidity providers to customize their exposure to preferred tokens. This version also incorporates augmented incentives for balancing open interest, offering a strategic avenue for hedging pools against trader profit fluctuations.