GMX Labs Names First CEO as Token Buybacks, Liquidity Overhaul Accelerate

GMX Labs, the development arm of decentralized derivatives exchange GMX, has named its first chief executive officer as it speeds up an overhaul of the protocol’s tokenomics. GMX DAO is also advancing a token buyback program and a liquidity restructuring plan.

GMX Labs said May 11 that it appointed community member Q, who is anonymous, as its inaugural CEO. Twenty candidates applied for the role, and an interim leadership committee selected Q after a review process.

Q is known as a GMX governance delegate and a major GMX token holder. Q also led development of GM Trade, a Solana-based GMX community project.

GMX Labs said the appointment is meant to strengthen execution between the DAO and the development organization and improve the efficiency of protocol operations. Q is now reviewing the project’s status with key contributors and overseeing the operational transition.

In a post on the GMX governance forum, Q wrote that a perpetual decentralized exchange should offer deeper liquidity, lower trading costs, more trading markets, a better user experience and broader community reach. All decisions should be aligned with those goals.

Q added that the team would eliminate any process that slows execution and put efficiency and speed first. “We’ll prove it through results,” Q wrote.

The appointment coincides with GMX DAO’s Strategic Plan to Restore Price Discovery, which passed in March. The plan focuses on addressing token overhang on centralized exchanges and a fragmented liquidity structure.

GMX staking rewards are currently suspended. Funds previously used for staking rewards have been moved to the treasury and are now being used for market buybacks of GMX tokens.

Since March, about $1.1 million of protocol revenue has been used for buybacks, according to GMX Labs. So far, about 168,500 GMX tokens have been repurchased at an average price of $6.5.

GMX has also reworked its liquidity structure. The project said it withdrew GMX liquidity from Uniswap V2 and Trader Joe and redeployed it to its own infrastructure.