How GMX Eliminated Trading Friction with Gelato Relay: A Case Study in Next-Gen DeFi UX

Key Takeaways

• Infrastructure abstraction is essential for DeFi adoption: Users shouldn't be bothered by gas mechanics or transaction signing to trade effectively.
• Streamlined gas payment is becoming table stakes: GMX's move shows that going frictionless is required to remain competitive.
• Proven infrastructure matters: With 4 years in production, Gelato Relay offers the reliability and performance that mission-critical trading infrastructure demands.
• 1Balance enables true multichain experiences: The same system powering Gelato's Account Abstraction infrastructure now brings a gasless experience to perpetual DEXs.
• Security and convenience aren't mutually exclusive: With proper architecture and auditing, protocols can deliver both.

For years, decentralized exchanges have revolutionized trading by removing intermediaries and giving users full control of their assets. But there's been a problem: the infrastructure itself can get in the way of the trading experience.

GMX, the leading non-custodial perpetuals and spot exchange operating across multiple blockchains with over $290B in total trading volume, aimed to resolve three pain points that were hampering their users' trading experience:

• Network Congestion Bottlenecks: During high-activity periods, RPC connectivity issues and blockchain congestion would cause transaction delays or failures, leaving traders unable to execute some time-sensitive trades.
• Gas Token Friction: Users needed to maintain ETH or AVAX balances to pay for gas, creating an additional layer of complexity and interrupting trading flows with frequent top-ups.
• Wallet Popup Fatigue: Every trade required manual wallet interactions and signatures—especially problematic for active traders making multiple trades per session.

With over 80 integrations and serving as a foundational layer for multichain DeFi, GMX needed a solution that could deliver the seamless experience traders expect from centralized exchanges while maintaining the security and self-custody benefits of DeFi.

GMX leveraged Gelato Relay to implement GMX Express, a comprehensive upgrade to their trading infrastructure that addresses all three pain points through intelligent transaction abstraction. This solidifies GMX’s position as category leader of what's becoming an industry-wide shift: everyone will eliminate gas payment friction soon, and Gelato Relay is the proven infrastructure to make it happen.

How It Works

Instead of users sending transactions directly to the blockchain through their own RPC connections, GMX Express introduces a new flow powered by Gelato Relay—the same battle-tested infrastructure that has been in production for 4 years and powers Gelato's comprehensive Account Abstraction (ERC-4337) suite and smart wallet solutions: Users sign a payload with their private key containing their trade instructions This signed payload is sent to Gelato's decentralized Relay network Gelato's keepers submit the transaction on behalf of the user GMX's smart contracts verify the payload and signature to ensure authenticity The transaction is processed on-chain with the Relayer fee automatically handled through 1Balance

This architecture shift delivers three key improvements:

1. Bypassing Network Congestion

By offloading transaction submission to Gelato's robust keeper network, trades go through even during peak congestion. Users no longer experience failed transactions due to RPC timeouts or network bottlenecks. For perpetual DEXs where timing is everything, this reliability is crucial.

2. Custom Gas Token Payments with 1Balance

GMX Express enables users to pay gas fees using: USDC WETH (on Arbitrum) WAVAX (on Avalanche) This is powered by 1Balance—the most advanced multichain gas sponsorship system in Web3. The protocol intelligently auto-selects the gas token with the highest USD balance and automatically switches to alternatives if one runs out. No more interrupting trades to top up ETH.

3. True One-Click Trading

The reimagined One-Click Trading (1CT) experience with Express eliminates all unnecessary friction: One-time setup: Sign once to activate Zero popups: No transaction confirmations after activation No manual signing: Trades execute instantly Configurable limits: Set trade count or time-based expiration for security

The implementation of GMX Express has transformed the trading experience:

• Reliability: Trades execute consistently even during network congestion spikes
• Speed: Elimination of wallet popups and manual signatures accelerates execution
• Simplicity: Automatic gas token selection removes the complexity of gas management
• Security: Guardian-audited smart contracts ensure user safety
• Developer-Friendly: Gelato's API is full-featured with comprehensive documentation, making integration seamless

For active traders, the difference is dramatic. What previously required multiple wallet interactions, gas balance checks, and manual signatures now happens seamlessly in the background. The trading experience finally matches the promise of DeFi: non-custodial control with centralized exchange-level UX.

The integration leverages several key components of Gelato's infrastructure:

• Gelato Relay Network: A decentralized network of keepers that reliably submit transactions
• 1Balance System: Powers both standard transactions and serves as the backbone for Gelato's Account Abstraction infrastructure
• Smart Contract Verification: GMX contracts verify payload authenticity before execution
• Automatic Fee Handling: Relayer fees are seamlessly processed without user intervention
• Multi-chain Support: Native integration on both Arbitrum and Avalanche

The entire system has been audited by Guardian, GMX's security partner, ensuring that the convenience doesn't come at the cost of security.

GMX Express represents a fundamental shift in how DeFi protocols approach user experience: the future of DeFi trading will be powered by APIs that abstract away infrastructure complexity.

Gelato Relay, with its battle-tested production track record, proven performance powering our Account Abstraction suite, and the most advanced multichain gas sponsorship system (1Balance), is powering this transformation.

Ready to join the gasless revolution? Learn more at rass.gelato.network.