Aster vs GMX

Aster

Those are the Crypto General rates at VIP 1, where a new account starts. Maker orders have been free on every order-book market since February 2026. The taker rate falls with VIP tier, and a tier needs both 14-day volume and an average ASTER balance, so volume alone does not lower your fee. Group B pairs pay more, stock and commodity perpetuals pay a flat 0.0125%, and the 1001x and Shield modes have their own fee models.

GMX

The position fee is charged on position size each time you open, close, increase, or partly close: 0.04% when the trade brings long and short open interest closer together and 0.06% when it widens the gap. Gold, silver, oil, and index markets have their own rates, which change with market hours. Price impact, borrowing, funding, and the keeper's network fee are separate, so the position fee on its own understates the cost of a trade.

Aster

You sign in with a wallet (Rabby, MetaMask, Binance Wallet, or anything on WalletConnect) or with an email address, and neither flow includes an identity check. The Terms, last updated February 25, 2026, say Aster may run limited identity verification to comply with regulations and may refuse or limit service to anyone who does not comply, but they do not say what triggers a check. You also warrant that your stated location is accurate and agree not to use any means to get around the location restrictions.

GMX

You connect a wallet (MetaMask, WalletConnect, Coinbase Wallet, and others) or log in with an email address, a social account, or a passkey, which creates an embedded wallet for you. Neither path includes an identity check. The Terms, last modified August 20, 2026, have no identity-verification clause and say GMX does not collect personal data. Buying crypto with a card inside the app goes through a third-party provider with its own rules, where available.

Aster

The Terms, last updated February 25, 2026, name eleven prohibited jurisdictions: the US, Canada, the UK, China, North Korea, Russia, Ukraine, Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, and Syria, plus any territory under comprehensive sanctions or a terrorist-supporting designation and anyone on a US, EU, or UK sanctions list. The test is where you live, are located, or are incorporated. Aster's separate prediction market rejects orders from a longer list of 34 countries that adds Australia, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Singapore, and others.

GMX

The Terms, last modified August 20, 2026, require that you are not a U.S. Person and, citing the Commodity Exchange Act, say no U.S. Person may enter into perpetual contracts through the interface. They also exclude residents, nationals, and agents of any country embargoed or similarly sanctioned by the US, the UK, or the EU, without naming those countries, and anyone on a US, UK, EU, or UN sanctions list. You promise not to use a VPN or any other tool to get around the restrictions.

Aster

On the order book each market has its own cap, shown in the trading panel, and you can choose any lower level. The docs do not publish the full table, but stock perpetuals go to 50x, pre-IPO markets to 10x or 20x, and new community-listed markets start at 3x. Cross margin is the default and isolated is available, but Multi-Asset Mode is cross only. The separate 1001x mode offers up to 1001x on BTC, 250x on ETH, 75x on other coins, and 200x on forex, with every position isolated and no adding margin at 500x or above. Shield Mode runs from 20x to 1001x.

GMX

The headline cap is 100x. Each market's own cap is derived from its collateral factors, rounded down to a 5x step, and falls as the pool's open interest grows, so thinner markets allow less. Gold, silver, WTI, and Brent allow 100x during market hours and 25x off-hours, QQQ and SPY 50x and 25x, natural gas 40x and 20x, and the SpaceX market 10x. Each position is margined on its own collateral, in a stablecoin or the market's own token, and you can add or withdraw collateral, including a deposit that triggers at a price you set. A position is liquidated when its remaining collateral falls below 0.25% to 1% of size, and the liquidation fee is 0.2% to 0.45% of size.

Aster

The public market list carried 584 live perpetuals on September 25, 2026: about 450 crypto pairs and about 130 real-world-asset markets, among them 115 US, Hong Kong, and Korean stocks, 14 ETFs and indexes, and 11 commodities such as gold, silver, and oil, plus pre-IPO markets for OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX and a few pre-launch tokens. Most are quoted in USDT, and a handful settle in USD1. Shield Mode adds EUR and GBP forex, and there is a spot order book. Order types: market, limit, stop-limit, stop-market, trailing stop, TWAP, scaled, chase, and grid strategies, with post-only, reduce-only, hidden, and immediate-or-cancel options.

GMX

The Oracle API listed 108 perpetual markets on Arbitrum on September 25, 2026: about 100 crypto assets and eight TradFi markets (gold, silver, WTI and Brent crude, natural gas, the QQQ and SPY index ETFs, and a SpaceX stock market), several with more than one pool to choose from. Avalanche had 12 markets and MegaETH 4. TradFi markets trade around the clock with tighter risk limits outside market hours. Spot swaps run through the same pools, with KyberSwap routing when it pays more. Order types: market, limit, stop market, TWAP in 2 to 30 parts, and take-profit and stop-loss, plus conditional margin deposits. Limit and trigger orders execute against the Chainlink oracle price when it reaches your level and do not rest in a book.

Aster

Connect a wallet on BNB Chain, Ethereum, Arbitrum, or Solana and deposit into the trading account through Aster's own bridge contracts, which are published along with a Sui address. USDT is the settlement asset and works from every chain. With Multi-Asset Mode on, USDC on Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Solana, SOL and JLP on Solana, and BTC, ETH, BNB, USD1, USDF, asBNB, and ASTER on BNB Chain also count as margin at a haircut. A BNB Chain wallet needs at least 0.001 BNB. Email sign-in accepts only USDT on Arbitrum. Deposits carry no Aster fee and usually land in one to five minutes. The docs do not publish minimums.

GMX

There is no exchange balance to fund for direct trading: connect a wallet on Arbitrum, Avalanche, or MegaETH, and the tokens in it (USDC, USDT, ETH, BTC, and each pool's other collateral tokens) serve as margin. From Ethereum, Base, or BNB Chain you deposit USDC, USDT, or ETH into a GMX Account, a separate trading balance on Arbitrum that Stargate and LayerZero bridge for you. It is not available on Avalanche or MegaETH, and bridging is limited by Stargate's liquidity caps. The app's Receive flow can also buy crypto with a card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay through a third-party provider where available. Classic mode needs ETH or AVAX for gas, while Express mode lets you pay gas in USDC.

Aster

Choose the network, token, and amount. The destination chain's gas is deducted from the withdrawal, and Aster says the minimum fee can be as low as 1 USDT, and the withdrawal screen shows the exact amount. Withdrawals from Aster Chain are batched, need two of three validators to sign, and take about 30 seconds, longer to Ethereum. Any negative balance must be settled first with Rebalance. Profits older than 24 hours can be withdrawn in full, while same-day profits are capped by a daily limit the docs do not state.

GMX

When you trade from your wallet there is nothing to withdraw: closing a position returns the collateral and any profit to the wallet, less the position fee, price impact, and the keeper's network fee. A GMX Account balance can be withdrawn as USDC, USDT, or ETH to Arbitrum, Ethereum, Base, or BNB Chain, whichever chain you deposited from. The docs do not publish the bridge cost, and transfers depend on Stargate liquidity.

Aster

The referrer earns 10% of a referred user's perpetual trading fees and chooses how much of that to pass back as a discount, from nothing to the full 10%. Only new sign-ups qualify, the relationship lasts 365 days by default, liquidation fees and zero-fee volume do not count, and rebates are paid in the asset the fee was paid in. No ChainScouter code is active.

GMX

A referral code takes 5% off opening and closing fees with a Tier 1 code and 10% with a Tier 2 or Tier 3 code, and the referrer earns 5% to 15% of those fees. Borrow and funding fees are not discounted. Without a code, GMX assigns an automatic 5% discount at $50M of lifetime volume on Arbitrum and 10% at $250M. A code stops paying its referrer after 12 months or $20,000 in rewards, but your discount carries on. No ChainScouter code is active.

Aster

The web app at asterdex.com is the main interface, with Pro, Shield, 1001x, and Spot as separate views. Aster Mobile is on Google Play under the Aster DEX developer account. The iOS build is distributed through TestFlight, and the docs still call the mobile app a beta. There is also a trading API with up to 30 keys per account.

GMX

The official interface is the web app at app.gmx.io, built as a progressive web app you can add to a phone's home screen. The docs list no native iOS or Android app. There are three trading modes. In Classic, your wallet signs every transaction. In Express, you sign messages and GMX's own relay submits them. Express with One-Click Trading adds a sub-account key, stored in your browser, that signs for you up to a limit you set. Developers get a public API, a TypeScript SDK, and published skills for AI agents.