gTrade and $GNS in 2025 — Where Vision and Value Coalesce
2024 proved to be a defining year for both gTrade and $GNS — a period of focused efforts that has prepared the protocol to truly stand out in 2025. From product development to tackling the complexities of scaling a decentralized perpetual futures exchange, the lessons learned have not only guided gTrade’s path forward but also laid a solid foundation for the year ahead.
With several major releases on the horizon, the platform is primed to capitalize on past successes and chart a course for exponential growth across the protocol and its wider ecosystem. This momentum will bolster gTrade’s status as the go-to platform for traders and integrators alike, while honoring the core values that make DeFi such a transformative force. At the heart of this evolution lies a commitment to expanding the utility of $GNS, setting the stage for a deeper, even more synergistic relationship between traders, the token, and the protocol that it underpins.
gTrade & $GNS in 2024
Key Figures
gTrade surpassed $85 billion in lifetime volume, with more than $32.5 billion added over the past year. This activity generated $24.5 million in revenue. By combining revenue sharing and counterparty utility, the majority of the protocol’s proceeds were directed to $GNS holders through buybacks, direct staking rewards, and token burns — totaling nearly $17 million in 2024, or more than 30% of $GNS’s current market cap.
With the buyback & burn mechanisms in place, over 1 million $GNS has been permanently removed from the supply. This commitment underscores gTrade’s dedication to fostering an ecosystem-centric model, and the protocol stands poised to deepen this synergy with $GNS holders as it moves into 2025.
Challenges
2024 presented its own set of challenges. A major codebase refactor to the diamond pattern (v8) required more time and resources than initially anticipated. While ultimately successful — and instrumental to accelerating future development — this overhaul underscored the complexities of updating smart contracts at gTrade’s scale. Additionally, rapid rollouts of updates like v9.2, intended to protect the protocol against exploitative trading behaviors, caused unintended friction for legitimate traders, highlighting the need for clearer communication and targeted programs such as Prime Trader.
The competitive landscape of PerpDEXs also continued to intensify as competitors prioritized aggressive growth strategies. In contrast, gTrade and its $GNS token holders remained focused on being value-driven, emphasizing decentralization and community rewards — a commitment that came with trade-offs.
Achievements
On the other hand, 2024 brought a series of milestones that further strengthened gTrade’s foundations. Key technical releases included multi-collateral trading, partials, major tokenomic re-designs with BB&D/B, a codebase refactor enabling deep third-party integrations, improved risk management, and various trading enhancements. Crucially, these extensive updates were executed without any major hacks or exploits, reinforcing trust in gTrade’s security standards.
Beyond technical achievements, gTrade’s non-tech initiatives paved the way for accelerated growth into 2025. Partnerships and expansions across Base and ApeChain validated the protocol’s model in both emerging and established environments, with ecosystem foundations and DAOs contributing network rewards and seed liquidity. This broad endorsement from external partners not only broadened gTrade’s user base but also underscored the protocol’s resilience through shifting market conditions. A special acknowledgement goes to the Arbitrum DAO and ApeChain team for their continued support.
Collectively, these learnings set the stage for a broader, more ambitious vision as gTrade stands better equipped to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving DeFi landscape.
The Path Ahead
The mission for gTrade in 2025 revolves around scaling the protocol effectively while maintaining its robustness and doubling down on growth initiatives. This chapter of expansion rests on five key themes: Core Protocol Development, Abstractions & Gamification, Liquidity and OI Unification, Network Effects, and GNS Utility. Refer to the 2025 Roadmap at the bottom of this article for a visualized version of this year’s plans.
Core Protocol Development
At the heart of gTrade’s 2025 evolution lies a series of foundational upgrades to supercharge growth, with OI hedging emerging as the most significant unlock in Q1. By replacing the existing borrowing fee model with mechanisms that encourage balanced markets through consistent trading, such as funding fees, gTrade eliminates a longstanding friction point for users. This new approach will eventually enable single pairs to scale their open interest tenfold and beyond — all while preserving safe exposure levels for the protocol. As this leap boosts trading volumes and fees, TVL should flow naturally to gTrade, fueling a positive feedback loop that further cements its position as one of the most liquidity-efficient protocols in DeFi.
In tandem, gTrade continues its focus to empower advanced traders with more precise trade management as a key priority. Features like partial TP/SL orders are set towards the first half, providing immediate benefits, while support for cross-margin trading is targeted for the second half as foundational updates are completed.
Meanwhile, by leveraging the unique advantages of gTrade’s LP-based model, a core spread upgrade will deliver increased reliability and maintain fair, best-in-market trading conditions, even during periods of high volatility.
Further enhancing flexibility, the upcoming USD position sizes feature will fix the notional value of each trade to the collateral’s worth at the time of entry. By decoupling position size from the volatility of non-stable assets, this option paves the way for greater trading volumes on alternative collaterals and opens the door to a wider range of supported collaterals. As traders gain more consistent exposure and risk management becomes more straightforward, the result should be a richer ecosystem that draws even more capital into gTrade’s markets.
And, as the industry is moving on-chain with assets increasingly being traded on DEXs, the integration of on-chain sources aggregated using volume-weighted pricing methods will improve the ability to fetch the most accurate prices while gTrade continues to list the hottest and newest pairs in the industry.
These improvements address the essential mechanics needed to foster consistent growth, positioning gTrade as a stable, reliable, and feature-rich platform with clear differentiators that have already been established.
Liquidity and OI Unification
One of gTrade’s most striking advantages has always been its liquidity efficiency, routinely handling around $100 million in daily volume with just $10 million in TVL. Building on this proven model and its success, the upcoming releases are poised to push that efficiency even further by breaking down the barriers between collaterals. This evolution also sets the stage for unified liquidity across chains, enabling deeper, more capital-friendly markets as max OIs are scaled proportionally.
Currently, gTrade’s vault model isolates liquidity by both chain and collateral type, occasionally leading to fragmentation and uneven trading conditions. To address this, the protocol is set to undergo two updates where 1) vaults on each chain will be unified as collateral types are treated similarly for the protocol’s exposure, followed by 2) cross-chain interoperability for said liquidity layers.
This “Global OI” approach will offer traders deeper liquidity pools, improved holding fees, further collateral flexibility, and bigger open interest limits across the board. For the protocol, it unlocks opportunities to tap into any collateral type and their respective TVL on any chain. By erasing the barriers that once siloed liquidity, the stage will be set for further improved efficiency and a more consistent trading environment — critical elements for large-scale adoption.
Between core developments and liquidity unification, the protocol will be positioned for hyper adoption and growth.
Abstractions & Gamification
With the expansion to ecosystems like Base and ApeChain last year, gTrade has identified a clear opportunity to lower the barrier to entry for both new and experienced users. By abstracting away on-chain complexities, users can look forward to features such as social logins and gasless transactions. Alongside this, a simplified UX is coming soon; ensuring a more intuitive trading experience through gTrade Lite.
With this, a chain abstraction release is around the corner that allows for borderless trading. gTrade will seamlessly tap into any chain with their respective tools, communities, and liquidity — without compromising on UX. Imagine a simplified front-end where Solana-native traders can seamlessly tap into gTrade’s 250+ pairs.
Building on these improvements and doubling down on the success of gTrade’s degen pairs in 2024, a more formal approach to high-leverage degen pairs will deliver the most thrilling experience advanced traders could seek. Meanwhile, the introduction of a social layer will incorporate elements of gamification, allowing communities to manage vaults, host trading events, and engage in friendly competitions — transforming each session into a dynamic, interactive experience.
gTrade is set to become the platform of choice for both newcomers and veterans. In bridging traditional ease-of-use and advanced DeFi capabilities, it delivers the best of both worlds — seamless enough for beginners, yet powerful enough for experts.
Network Effects
With several smart contract integrations lined up, the protocol is now well-positioned to see network effects flourish in 2025. Multiple integrators are incorporating gTrade’s liquidity layer for their own front-ends and products, amplifying the protocol’s reach by tapping into their communities and user bases.
Enhanced integrator support and an overhauled referral system will further incentivize third parties to adopt gTrade’s architecture. This growing network of partners not only diversifies volume sources but also cultivates an ecosystem where each new integration reinforces the next one as funding fees (OI hedging) are rolled out. Meanwhile, the non-tech team will focus on forging strategic partnerships to leverage existing distribution channels, accelerating user growth and broadening gTrade’s overall reach.
By positioning itself as a transparent and decentralized liquidity layer, gTrade is committed to becoming the most obvious choice for both established and emerging Web3 projects looking to integrate a wide set of functionalities. This ethos resonates not only with individual DeFi traders but also with trading desks and proprietary funds that value security, fairness, and on-chain verifiability. As gTrade continues to expand its network of partners, the community can expect further integrations that bring these institutional players into the ecosystem — strengthening the protocol’s standing as the premier venue for next-generation on-chain trading.
$GNS Utility
The final theme of gTrade’s development is the deeper integration of $GNS within the protocol. With a gGNS vault, traders will soon be able to use $GNS as collateral across all pairs, enjoying perks such as steeper trading discounts, while those who stake $GNS will see additional benefits in the form of fee discounts on other collateral types. By bringing $GNS closer to the core trading experience, gTrade cements the bond between the protocol’s performance and the token — a convergence that underscores why 2025 will be a pivotal year for both.
Subject to community-alignment, the team is ready to introduce GNS Staking v2, rewarding long-term holders through non-linear staking rewards. Finally, a market-maker deal is also in progress, aiming to strengthen $GNS liquidity in multiple markets and reinforce its central role in gTrade’s design.
Taken together, these initiatives reflect gTrade’s ambition to elevate its user experience and strengthen the protocol’s underpinnings, all without straying from the DeFi-first principles that have guided it this far.
2025 Roadmap
Below is the 2025 roadmap for gTrade, featuring Q1 commitments while maintaining flexibility for the remainder of the year. As market conditions and user demand evolve, this adaptive approach ensures the protocol can pivot and prioritize features that have the highest impact for traders, integrators, and the broader $GNS ecosystem.
Beyond the core commitments for 2025 as laid out above, gTrade also envisions a range of other forward-thinking features and expansions that could materialize if market conditions and user demand align. From Novel Pairs supporting advanced trading strategies to Agentic Mechanics enabling AI-driven or community-led operations, the protocol stands ready to explore new horizons. Proof of Personhood could reward verified human traders with distinct advantages, while additional in-house rewards would foster a more competitive environment. On the liquidity side, integrating yield-bearing stablecoins could attract a wider variety of capital deployments, and enabling users to trade with any collateral type or select receive asset would offer greater flexibility based on their preferences.
As the industry matures, a Widgets & Whitelabel strategy might see gTrade powering additional third-party front-ends across the space. Meanwhile, dynamic fee distributions could allow the protocol to manage fee flows more flexibly. Longer-term visions — such as a dedicated gTrade AppChain serving as a high-speed liquidity hub — could enhance the trading experience while strengthening $GNS utility, and may be prioritized if user and community demand dictates.
Finally, as Gains Network continues to grow, the team and community may start imagining opportunities beyond gTrade, especially those that can leverage its ever-increasing protocol-owned liquidity. To serve the next wave of on-chain users, gToken vaults could act as a backbone for horizontal expansion, supporting the emergence of new gProducts. Regardless of how the market evolves, the protocol stands ready to expand in response to emerging opportunities and user needs. And team remains more committed than ever to making 2025 the most successful chapter in gTrade’s history.
Follow gTrade on X for the latest updates.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out!
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/gains-network
Telegram: https://t.me/GainsNetwork
