Gains Network (gTrade) Referral — Fee Discount

Gains Network operates gTrade, one of the most established decentralized perpetual futures platforms in DeFi. By entering through the referral link, traders receive a fee discount on every trade — an automatic reduction that applies without any additional steps or thresholds to meet. The platform is notable for supporting not just crypto perpetuals but also synthetic forex pairs and stock indices, making it one of the broadest asset selections among on-chain derivatives protocols.

What Gains Network and gTrade are

Gains Network launched gTrade in 2021 and has operated continuously since, accumulating billions in trading volume across Polygon and Arbitrum deployments. The protocol is built around a GNS token that governs the system and a DAI/USDC vault that provides liquidity for all leveraged positions.

Unlike AMM-based models where large positions can significantly move prices, gTrade uses Chainlink oracles for price feeds, meaning the execution price you see is the actual price — there is no price impact from the size of your trade on most pairs. This makes gTrade particularly attractive for traders with larger position sizes who would face meaningful slippage on AMM-based platforms.

The gTrade asset selection — crypto, forex, and stocks

The asset selection on gTrade is a key differentiator. Most on-chain perp DEXes offer only crypto pairs. gTrade includes:

Crypto perpetuals on major and mid-cap pairs with leverage up to 150x on some assets. Forex pairs covering major currency pairs like EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY, and others, with the ability to run leveraged positions around macro events like central bank announcements. Synthetic stock indices including exposure to US equity indices, giving on-chain traders access to traditional market exposures without leaving DeFi.

This breadth means traders can consolidate positions across asset classes in a single non-custodial environment, rather than splitting across a DEX for crypto, a CFD broker for forex, and a separate platform for equities.

How the referral fee discount works

The referral link above applies the fee discount automatically when you connect your wallet. No code entry is required. The discount reduces the base trading fee on every position opened through gTrade. Given that gTrade's fees are already competitive — typically in the 0.04-0.08% range depending on asset and collateral type — the referral discount compounds meaningfully across active trading.

Unlike some referral programs that expire after a volume cap, the Gains Network referral discount applies for the duration of the referral relationship. There is no ceiling on how much you can save through the program.

gTrade vs GMX and dYdX

gTrade competes most directly with GMX V2 and dYdX in the DeFi perpetuals space. Against GMX, the oracle-based execution model provides an advantage on large positions — no price impact means a $500K position fills at the same price as a $5K position. Against dYdX, gTrade offers broader asset coverage including forex and stocks, while dYdX focuses purely on crypto.

The tradeoff compared to Hyperliquid is that gTrade has a more complex fee structure and somewhat higher base fees on crypto pairs. However, for traders specifically interested in forex or stock exposure on-chain, gTrade has no direct on-chain competitor at scale.

Security and audits

Gains Network has operated since 2021 through multiple market cycles without a major exploit. The protocol has undergone multiple security audits. It is one of the longer-lived DeFi derivatives protocols in production, which is meaningful context when evaluating smart contract risk relative to newer platforms.

Frequently Asked Questions