Arthur Hayes sells $9.6m of GMX as newer protocols eat market share with point systems

Arthur Hayes, previously the largest staker on GMX, a decentralised perpetual exchange, unstaked the entirety of his 237,000 GMX last night and sent the sum to Wintermute, an algorithmic trading firm, in an apparent over-the-counter sale.

Hayes is a co-founder of BitMEX, a centralised perpetual trading exchange and the chief investment officer at Maelstrom, a family office fund.

Hayes first bought 53 Ether worth, about $150,000, of GMX on March 3, 2022, when the price was $31.9 per GMX. He then went on to purchase more GMX using two wallets, 0x53 and 0x9e, across more than 50 transactions.

The purchases varied in size, from as low as 582 GMX for 30 Ether to as much as 10,790 GMX for 100 Ether.

The average cost for all of his purchases was $29.74 per token, or around $7 million. With his sale today valued at $9.6 million, he earned a net profit of $2.6 million.

Hayes also earned a yield on his GMX, which varied depending on the total volume generated on the protocol and how many users were staking at any given time. The annual percentage yields ranged between 0.88% and 34.11%.

Stakers can also earn multiplier points designed to reward long-term holders by enhancing their share of the yield received, without inflating the GMX token supply.

When Hayes unstaked his GMX, he forfeited any accumulated multiplier points. The transaction suggests he is effectively selling, because a committed long-term investor would likely not relinquish these benefits.

This comes as March saw the largest decentralised derivatives exchange volume for any month, and yet the tokens for these protocols are underperforming other sectors.

The discrepancy between trading volume and token performance might be the result of the point programs that have been introduced by newer decentralised derivatives exchanges.

Such programs incentivize traders by awarding points based on the trading volume users generate — the more they trade, the more points they receive. Eventually, these points can be converted into tokens.

This mechanism encourages trading on exchanges that offer point programs, because traders can benefit financially when these tokens are officially launched.

Amid these developments, GMX, once the leader in decentralised derivatives trading volumes, has fallen to the 12th position in terms of volume over the last 24 hours.

Ryan Celaj is a data correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at ryan@dlnews.com.