Variational vs GMGN
Variational fills each trade at a quoted price, with a 0% trading fee on perps. GMGN charges 1% per spot trade. Neither requires KYC. Both bar Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Syria.
Perpetuals on Arbitrum with no trading fee, where Variational's own market maker quotes every trade. Crypto, stocks, commodities, and indexes share one account.
Multi-chain memecoin terminal on the web, phones, and Telegram: launch feeds, holder and rug checks, wallet tracking, automated copy trading and exits, and a perps beta.
| Criterion | Variational | GMGN |
|---|---|---|
| Fee model | Quote-based | Per transaction |
| Base fee | 0% per trade on perps | 1% per spot trade |
| KYC | No KYC | No KYC |
| Restricted countries | United States, Canada, Taiwan, and 13 more | Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, and 2 more |
| Leverage | Up to 50x, 20x on TradFi perps | Up to 40x on BTC in the perps beta |
| Markets | 550+ markets: crypto, stocks, commodities, indexes | Tokens on Solana and twelve other chains, perps in beta |
| Airdrop | Points, no token yet | Points, no token yet |
How Variational and GMGN compare
Every fact links to the page it comes from.
| Criterion | Variational | GMGN |
|---|---|---|
| Fees | 0%Trading fee. Omni perps and swaps, every market Omni, Variational's trading app, charges no maker or taker fee on any market or trade size. Every trade fills at a price quoted by OLP, Variational's own market maker, so the cost of a trade is the spread in that quote, which the order form shows for your size. Deposits and withdrawals cost a flat 0.1 USDC each, and a liquidation closes the position 0.5% past the quote. | 1%Trading fee. Spot trades on every chain, perps listed separately Every spot trade pays GMGN a flat 1% of its value on every chain, and copied trades and automated orders pay the same. Network costs come on top: gas plus the priority fee and tip you set on Solana, and gas on the EVM chains. Launchpad fees and token taxes apply where a token has them. The perps beta charges 0.015% maker and 0.045% taker. The Terms let GMGN change fees at any time, effective when posted, and authorize it to take fees straight from your wallet. Docs: GMGN fees and settings (1% fee, priority fee, tip, anti-MEV)GMGN blog: GMGN vs Axiom for beginners (flat 1% trading fee), updated July 7, 2026Docs: copy trade (1% fee on every copied trade)GMGN perps market data (maker, taker, and liquidation fee rates)ChainCatcher: GMGN compensates sandwich losses on MEV-protected trades (July 9, 2025)Terms of Service, section 4: fees |
| KYC | No KYC You connect an EVM wallet (Rabby, MetaMask, or anything on WalletConnect), enter an access code while Omni is in private beta, accept the Terms, and sign in with a gasless signature. No identity check is asked for to trade, deposit, or withdraw. KYC applies only to some payouts: referral rewards of $4,000 or more from the on-chain trader campaign, and trading competition prizes. The app checks your location by IP and shows a restricted-region notice to visitors from restricted countries. | No KYC You sign up with Google, an email code, Telegram, or a browser wallet such as Phantom or MetaMask, with an optional invite code, and no identity document is asked for. The Terms, updated October 2, 2026, and the Privacy Policy, dated December 6, 2024, reserve no identity check. The policy lists wallet addresses, public on-chain data, a Telegram handle, contact details you choose to give, and usage data down to country-level location. Withdrawals need two-factor authentication, an account-security step rather than an identity check. Card purchases run through MoonPay or Onramper under those providers' own rules. |
| Country restrictions | 16+ countries restricted The Restricted Persons policy, last updated April 20, 2026, bars the US and its territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the US Minor Outlying Islands), Canada, Taiwan, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Palau, and the Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, and Sevastopol regions of Ukraine. It also bars US and Canadian persons wherever they live, and the Terms, last updated September 11, 2026, extend the ban to citizens of a restricted country as well as residents. The app applies the list by IP address, and the Terms forbid using a VPN to disguise your location. | 5+ countries restricted The Terms, updated October 2, 2026, bar anyone in, under the control of, or a national or resident of Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, or Syria, and anyone on the UN, US OFAC, or EU sanctions lists, and require users to be 18. They say GMGN runs the service from the British Virgin Islands, that users anywhere else are responsible for their own local law, and that GMGN may suspend anyone for any reason. The terms linked from the iOS app's store listing, updated the same day, name the same five countries. Neither version mentions the perps beta. |
| Leverage | Up to 50x, 20x on TradFi perps Every crypto perpetual allows up to 50x. Perpetuals on stocks, ETFs, commodities, indexes, and pre-IPO companies cap at 20x, and swaps at 10x, with cocoa at 5x. The markets page shows each market's cap. Maintenance margin is half the initial margin at the leverage you pick, so lowering leverage on an open position can move its liquidation price closer. Positions are cross-margined unless you switch a market to isolated, and swaps are isolated only until they trade around the clock. | Up to 40x on BTC in the perps beta The perps beta, open since September 21, 2026, sets a cap per market in GMGN's published risk table. BTC goes to 40x, and ETH, gold, silver, and the QQQ and SPY funds to 25x. SOL, XRP, Brent oil, and stocks such as Apple, Nvidia, and Tesla go to 20x, most other markets to 10x, and six others to 5x. Each cap steps down as a position grows, so BTC drops to 20x above 12 million USDC of notional. Spot trading has no leverage. |
| Markets | 550+ markets: crypto, stocks, commodities, indexes Omni's public API listed 568 markets on October 12, 2026: 434 crypto perpetuals, 120 perpetuals on stocks, ETFs, commodities, indexes, and the pre-IPO names Anthropic and OpenAI, and 14 swaps. Swaps track gold, silver, oil, gasoline, copper, cocoa, US and Asian equity indexes, the VIX, and the dollar index, with financing tied to traditional rates, and they trade market hours and close on weekends. Perps trade around the clock. There is no order book: market orders fill at the quote, limit orders fill in full once the quote crosses your price, and trigger orders fire on the mark price. Take-profit and stop-loss orders fire on the mark or the quoted price, your choice. Limit orders do not fill partially yet, and open orders expire after 120 days. | Tokens on Solana and twelve other chains, perps in beta Spot trading covers tokens on Solana, BNB Chain, Robinhood Chain, Base, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Stable, Arc, X Layer, HyperEVM, MegaETH, Monad, and Tron, as listed in the chain selector on October 8, 2026. The Trenches view follows new launches on launchpads such as Pump.fun, letsbonk, and Four.meme from creation through migration. Spot orders include market buys and sells, limit orders that expire after 1 hour, 24 hours, or 3 days, take-profit and stop-loss with trailing versions, buys and sells triggered by a migration, sells triggered by the developer selling, and wallet copy trading. The docs describe copy trading and auto-buy for Solana only. The perps beta lists 57 USDC-margined markets in GMGN's market data on October 8, 2026: 24 crypto, 30 stocks and ETFs, and gold, silver, and Brent oil. |
| Depositing | USDC on Arbitrum only Collateral is USDC on Arbitrum One, deposited from the wallet you signed up with. The docs name no other route: funds on another chain have to be bridged to Arbitrum first, or withdrawn there from an exchange. Deposits are gasless, so you need no ETH, and each one costs a flat 0.1 USDC. Your USDC sits in an on-chain settlement pool between you and OLP, kept separate from every other trader's pool. | Crypto to your GMGN wallet, or a card via MoonPay Signing in with Google, email, Telegram, or Phantom gives you GMGN-held wallets on each chain, funded by sending that chain's gas token, such as SOL, ETH, BNB, or TRX, to the address on the Deposit/Withdraw page. A deposit on the wrong network cannot be recovered. With an extension wallet connected, the same page moves funds across in one step, or you can trade from the extension wallet itself without GMGN's automation. The web app's Buy option takes a credit or debit card or Apple Pay through MoonPay, and the mobile app buys SOL, ETH, BNB, or USDC with local currency through Onramper in 59 countries and regions, each under the provider's own fees and checks. Convert moves funds between chains, and stablecoins sent by mistake can be sold for the chain's own token. Docs: import and export private key, deposit, withdrawDocs: connect Telegram or Phantom, multi-wallet systemGMGN web app: Buy (card and Apple Pay, powered by MoonPay)GMGN web app: App 3.0 event rules (fiat deposits through Onramper in 59 countries and regions)GMGN blog: how to buy memecoins on Arc (Convert to Arc USDC) |
| Withdrawing | USDC on Arbitrum, to your own wallet Withdrawals send USDC on Arbitrum back to the wallet connected to your account, the only destination allowed. They are gasless and cost a flat 0.1 USDC. With positions open, you can withdraw only the balance above your margin requirement. | 2FA and a whitelisted address, no GMGN fee published The Telegram bots cannot withdraw and send you to the website instead. You first bind two-factor authentication with Google Authenticator or a passkey, and withdrawals stay locked for 3 hours after binding it, 24 hours after unbinding or re-binding it, and 24 hours after a password reset. Transfers go to a whitelisted address, which takes 3 hours to activate after it is set or changed and then skips the 2FA prompt. A small balance must stay behind for rent and gas, and GMGN publishes no withdrawal fee beyond the network fee. Memecoins leave through the multi-wallet Consolidate and Distribute tools, which also need 2FA and list only tokens worth more than 10 USDT. GMGN's docs say the keys of GMGN-created wallets cannot be exported, while the current web app offers a one-time key download from a computer once 2FA is active. Imported wallets are excluded. |
| Airdrop | Points, no token yet Variational has no token yet. It says $VAR launches in Q4 2026 with 32% of supply airdropped to points holders in proportion to their points, all of it unlocked at launch. Points are earned by trading on Omni and go out weekly until the launch. No date, token price, or points-to-token rate has been published. An account needs at least 1 point and must sign the $VAR terms to receive tokens, and the Terms let Variational change or withhold points at its discretion. Variational says it will use all revenue sent to its treasury to buy back and burn $VAR. | Points, no token yet GMGN has no token and has never run an airdrop, and none came with its perps beta in September 2026. Trading earns credits and cashback, and GMGN has paid trading-contest prizes in BNB and USDT, but no published rule ties any of it to a future token. Co-founder Haze said in July 2025 that the team is weighing how to launch a token well, not whether. A token sold under GMGN's name on a launchpad is not GMGN's unless GMGN announces it. |
| Referral program | Access code to sign up During the private beta, an existing trader's referral code is the access code a new account needs. A referral link carries the code in the address, and the app picks it up for the access-code step after you connect a wallet. The referrer earns 5% of the spread their referrals pay, in USDC, and 1 point for every 10 points their referrals earn. Traders unlock a first referral code at $1M in volume and one more slot for each $1M after that, and the app rejects invalid or expired codes. A campaign running since August 12, 2026 also gives points to 10,000 listed on-chain trader addresses that sign up with a code and reach volume milestones. | No signup discount published GMGN pays referrers 10% to 30% of the trading fees of the people they bring in, rising with the volume referred, and a referrer can apply for a higher rate. One code covers the website and every bot, and an invite code entered at signup cannot be changed. Neither the docs nor the Terms publish a fee discount for the person who signs up. The Terms, updated October 2, 2026, let GMGN change, suspend, or void rewards at its discretion. |
| Platform | Web app, installs on phones Omni runs in the browser at omni.variational.io and is built for mobile browsers too. Variational publishes no native app and says none is needed: on a phone you can add Omni to the home screen as a web app, then link it to a signed-in desktop session with a QR code instead of connecting a wallet on the phone. A read-only API serves market data, and the trading API is not available yet. | Web, iOS and Android apps, and Telegram bots GMGN runs as a browser terminal at gmgn.ai, as a mobile app listed on the App Store as GMGN - Meme Track (published by GraceMatrix Technologies Limited since June 2025) and on Google Play as GMGN (published by GMGN Labs Limited), with a TestFlight build and a direct APK download also linked from gmgn.ai/app, and as a set of per-chain Telegram trading bots such as @GMGN_sol_bot. The web terminal holds the Trenches launch feed, trending lists, wallet and X trackers, copy trading, a portfolio view, and the perps beta, and an Agent API lets scripts and AI assistants read data and place trades with an API key. Support runs through the official Telegram group and the @gmgnai account on X. |
Rates apply to the accounts and markets in each scope, before discounts. Network, funding, execution, and transfer costs are separate. A country missing from a restriction list is not confirmed eligible.
Questions about Variational and GMGN
Is Variational or GMGN cheaper?
GMGN's headline rate is for spot trades and Variational's for perps, so they do not line up. Network, funding, execution, and transfer costs are separate.
Variational: The trading fee is 0%, and each trade fills at a quoted price that includes a spread. Omni, Variational's trading app, charges no maker or taker fee on any market or trade size. Every trade fills at a price quoted by OLP, Variational's own market maker, so the cost of a trade is the spread in that quote, which the order form shows for your size. Deposits and withdrawals cost a flat 0.1 USDC each, and a liquidation closes the position 0.5% past the quote.
GMGN: The standard trading fee is 1% per trade. Every spot trade pays GMGN a flat 1% of its value on every chain, and copied trades and automated orders pay the same. Network costs come on top: gas plus the priority fee and tip you set on Solana, and gas on the EVM chains. Launchpad fees and token taxes apply where a token has them. The perps beta charges 0.015% maker and 0.045% taker. The Terms let GMGN change fees at any time, effective when posted, and authorize it to take fees straight from your wallet.
Do Variational and GMGN require KYC?
Neither requires KYC.
Variational: You connect an EVM wallet (Rabby, MetaMask, or anything on WalletConnect), enter an access code while Omni is in private beta, accept the Terms, and sign in with a gasless signature. No identity check is asked for to trade, deposit, or withdraw. KYC applies only to some payouts: referral rewards of $4,000 or more from the on-chain trader campaign, and trading competition prizes. The app checks your location by IP and shows a restricted-region notice to visitors from restricted countries.
GMGN: You sign up with Google, an email code, Telegram, or a browser wallet such as Phantom or MetaMask, with an optional invite code, and no identity document is asked for. The Terms, updated October 2, 2026, and the Privacy Policy, dated December 6, 2024, reserve no identity check. The policy lists wallet addresses, public on-chain data, a Telegram handle, contact details you choose to give, and usage data down to country-level location. Withdrawals need two-factor authentication, an account-security step rather than an identity check. Card purchases run through MoonPay or Onramper under those providers' own rules.
Can I use Variational or GMGN in the US?
Variational names the US as restricted. GMGN does not name the US, which is not the same as confirmed eligibility.
Variational: The Restricted Persons policy, last updated April 20, 2026, bars the US and its territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the US Minor Outlying Islands), Canada, Taiwan, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Palau, and the Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, and Sevastopol regions of Ukraine. It also bars US and Canadian persons wherever they live, and the Terms, last updated September 11, 2026, extend the ban to citizens of a restricted country as well as residents. The app applies the list by IP address, and the Terms forbid using a VPN to disguise your location.
GMGN: The Terms, updated October 2, 2026, bar anyone in, under the control of, or a national or resident of Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, or Syria, and anyone on the UN, US OFAC, or EU sanctions lists, and require users to be 18. They say GMGN runs the service from the British Virgin Islands, that users anywhere else are responsible for their own local law, and that GMGN may suspend anyone for any reason. The terms linked from the iOS app's store listing, updated the same day, name the same five countries. Neither version mentions the perps beta.
What leverage do Variational and GMGN offer?
Variational: Every crypto perpetual allows up to 50x. Perpetuals on stocks, ETFs, commodities, indexes, and pre-IPO companies cap at 20x, and swaps at 10x, with cocoa at 5x. The markets page shows each market's cap. Maintenance margin is half the initial margin at the leverage you pick, so lowering leverage on an open position can move its liquidation price closer. Positions are cross-margined unless you switch a market to isolated, and swaps are isolated only until they trade around the clock.
GMGN: The perps beta, open since September 21, 2026, sets a cap per market in GMGN's published risk table. BTC goes to 40x, and ETH, gold, silver, and the QQQ and SPY funds to 25x. SOL, XRP, Brent oil, and stocks such as Apple, Nvidia, and Tesla go to 20x, most other markets to 10x, and six others to 5x. Each cap steps down as a position grows, so BTC drops to 20x above 12 million USDC of notional. Spot trading has no leverage.
What can I trade on Variational and GMGN?
Variational: Omni's public API listed 568 markets on October 12, 2026: 434 crypto perpetuals, 120 perpetuals on stocks, ETFs, commodities, indexes, and the pre-IPO names Anthropic and OpenAI, and 14 swaps. Swaps track gold, silver, oil, gasoline, copper, cocoa, US and Asian equity indexes, the VIX, and the dollar index, with financing tied to traditional rates, and they trade market hours and close on weekends. Perps trade around the clock. There is no order book: market orders fill at the quote, limit orders fill in full once the quote crosses your price, and trigger orders fire on the mark price. Take-profit and stop-loss orders fire on the mark or the quoted price, your choice. Limit orders do not fill partially yet, and open orders expire after 120 days.
GMGN: Spot trading covers tokens on Solana, BNB Chain, Robinhood Chain, Base, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Stable, Arc, X Layer, HyperEVM, MegaETH, Monad, and Tron, as listed in the chain selector on October 8, 2026. The Trenches view follows new launches on launchpads such as Pump.fun, letsbonk, and Four.meme from creation through migration. Spot orders include market buys and sells, limit orders that expire after 1 hour, 24 hours, or 3 days, take-profit and stop-loss with trailing versions, buys and sells triggered by a migration, sells triggered by the developer selling, and wallet copy trading. The docs describe copy trading and auto-buy for Solana only. The perps beta lists 57 USDC-margined markets in GMGN's market data on October 8, 2026: 24 crypto, 30 stocks and ETFs, and gold, silver, and Brent oil.
Do Variational and GMGN have airdrops?
Variational: Variational has no token yet. It says $VAR launches in Q4 2026 with 32% of supply airdropped to points holders in proportion to their points, all of it unlocked at launch. Points are earned by trading on Omni and go out weekly until the launch. No date, token price, or points-to-token rate has been published. An account needs at least 1 point and must sign the $VAR terms to receive tokens, and the Terms let Variational change or withhold points at its discretion. Variational says it will use all revenue sent to its treasury to buy back and burn $VAR.
GMGN: GMGN has no token and has never run an airdrop, and none came with its perps beta in September 2026. Trading earns credits and cashback, and GMGN has paid trading-contest prizes in BNB and USDT, but no published rule ties any of it to a future token. Co-founder Haze said in July 2025 that the team is weighing how to launch a token well, not whether. A token sold under GMGN's name on a launchpad is not GMGN's unless GMGN announces it.
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