MUX is an emerging Perp DEX and Perp DEX aggregator (Arbitrum only currently) that provides the most competitive fees, an efficient liquidity mechanism, and the highest leverage for retail crypto participants currently. We recently ran a step-by-step guide on how to use MUX and you can find that here.

In this article, we’ll be breaking down the users, Total Value Locked (TVL), PnL, as well as the liquidity pool (LP) of MUX and its competitors in the Perp Dex landscape. 

Despite the clean UI and Real Yield paid in ETH to MUX token holders, MUX still remains largely under the radar compared to other perp DEX protocols. 

The protocol's income, yield, and metrics overall indicate that it’s an attractive investment for crypto participants looking for exposure to perp DEXs. 

To be the best, you have to beat the best. So let’s compare MUX to current market leaders in GMX, Gains, and Vela. 

But before we dive into the comparative analysis, let’s first take a look at what makes MUX unique. 

What sets MUX apart

MUX’s leveraged trading protocol can be used to:

• Open up to 100x leveraged positions, with zero price impact - this is one of the highest leverage offerings in DeFi
• Trade with optimal cost (currently one of the cheapest in the market)
• Use aggregated liquidity for trades, giving you a high open interest cap for faster trades with less slippage
• Use multiple types of assets as collateral/margin

The MUX Leveraged Trading Aggregator aims to solve 3 main issues:

1. Efficiently utilising the liquidity across different protocols for traders
2. Providing a native approach to utilising the cross-chain liquidity available in crypto today
3. Providing optimal pricing and trading experiences despite the different pricing mechanisms and margin parameters on each protocol

Under MUX’s native MUXP pool, there are only 0.08% open & close fees of your position size. This combined with 0% price impact and 0% spread on ETH & BTC, greatly lowers trading costs for users:

In comparison, GMX currently charges 0.1% of the position size to open/close a trade. 

While GNS charges 0.08%. With the additional 10% referral discount MUX offers, it makes it the best on the market currently.

Okay enough chit-chat, let’s get into it.

Metric #1: Users

When it comes to total users: 

• MUX has 12,772 total users
• GMX has 252,487 total users
• Gains/GNS has 13,169 total users
• Vela has reported over 40,000 users during their open beta phase

Metric #2: Total Value Locked (TVL)

When it comes to TVL:

• MUX has $39.32m TVL
• GMX has $687.304m TVL
• Gains/GNS has $58.69m TVL 
• Vela had $51.74m TVL before refunding tokens to VLP holders and traders in their open beta

Metric #3: Protocol Fees/Income

When it comes to total fees:

• MUX has generated $5.2m in cumulative protocol income since launching in August 2022
• GMX has generated $161.7m in fees since launching in September 2021
• GNS has generated $27.9m in fees since launching in October 2021 
• Vela’s open beta generated $1.957m in fees (now closed)

Metric #4: LP

When it comes to the LPs traders use for these Perp DEXes: 

• MUX has MUXLP, which is now valued at $37.6m
• GMX has GLP, which is valued at $562m 
• GNS has gDAI, which is valued at $53.5m 
• Vela had $47m in its VLP vaults at the peak of its open beta before closing 

Metric #5: Total Trading Volume

When it comes to total trading volume: 

• MUX has over $6.5 billion in trading volume
• GMX has over $107 billion in trading volume
• GNS has over $37 billion in trading volume 

With these metrics at hand, let’s analyse the ratios in comparison to the market cap/tokens of each project. 

Analysing GMX

$GMX is currently valued at $62.75 per token, with a circulating market cap of $546m, and FDV of $832m. 

With its TVL at around $687m currently, that’s an FDV/TVL ratio of 1.21.

Its P/F (price to fees) ratio is at 4.8x, while its P/S (price to sales) ratio is at 16.02x.

Analysing GNS 

$GNS is valued at $4.96 per token, with a market cap and FDV of $151.23m. 

With no tokens left to dilute the supply, that makes it a more attractive investment due to no worries of an unlock leading to a dump in the token’s price down the line. 

Its P/F ratio is at 7.16x, while its P/S ratio is at 8.94x. 

Analysing MUX

$MCB is valued at $13.45, at a circulating market cap of $51.09m, and an FDV of $64.52m. 

While there are some token unlocks down the line, its circ mcap/FDV ratio is better than GMX’s, and the unreleased tokens are saved for future MUX vesting.

Its P/F ratio is at 3.92x, and its P/S ratio is at 7.2x. 

One thing that already stands out from just analysing these metrics: despite MUX’s additional aggregator that allows cheaper fees, better liquidity management and higher leverage than using GMX/GNS on certain pairs - it has the lowest P/F ratio, indicating that it’s more undervalued compared to both GNS and GMX. 

(MUX’s aggregator allows you to increase the max leverage on GMX to 100x, while their “Liquidation Price Optimization” feature gives you better liquidation prices on GMX as well! This feature is currently free to use.)

Its P/S (price to sales) ratio also shows that the market is not valuing MUX at the same ratio it would for GNS or GMX (8.94x and 16.02x respectively). 

It’s also interesting to note that MUX is quite close to GNS in terms of total users (12,772 vs 13,169), and yet GNS’s market cap is almost 3 times of MUX ($151m mcap for $GNS vs $64.52m mcap for $MCB) 

However, we’ll need more time to see the income that MUX can generate over a 12-month period in order to properly analyse its income vs its competitors. 

Either way, all the above suggests that the market, by and large, is currently undervaluing MUX as a whole, and may simply not be aware of the protocol or its Perp DEX aggregator as much as its competitors. 

To combat this lack of awareness, the MUX team has continued shipping out updates and improvements to their core product (Perp DEX + Perp DEX aggregator), while beginning to engage in regular updates and marketing across Twitter and their various social media channels. 

Conclusion:

Metrics 21/05/2023GMXGAINS NETWORKVELA EXCHANGEMUX PROTOCOLTrading Fees (open and close)0.01%0.08%0.072% (+10% refferal discount)Users252,48713,16940,00012,772TVL$687m$58m$51m$39mFees/Income$161m Since September 2021$27m Since October 2021$1.9m now closed$5.2m Since August 2022LPs$562m (GLP)$53m (gDAI)$47m (VLP)$37m (MUXLP)Total Trading Volume$107bn$37bn$6.5bnMarket Cap$546m$151m$25m$51mFDV$832m$151m$133m$64mThank you to Yamete for creating this table.

Even with MUX protocol’s token growing in market cap over the past few months, multiple metrics still suggest $MCB as a token, and MUX as a whole, is undervalued by the market. 

Featuring more tools to make leveraged trading easy on DeFi for retail crypto participants than its competition, it’s likely MUX has a bright future ahead if its team continues to deliver updates and improvements to its product while continuing to build awareness and market its product to a wider audience.

You can also use this referral link for an immediate 10% discount on your trading fees if you’d like to try MUX out for yourself. (with the link, your fees will be 0.072%).