perps.studio vs Gains Network (gTrade)

Architecture and Execution

Gains Network and perps.studio use fundamentally different execution models that affect everything from pricing to available order types.

Gains Network (gTrade) uses an oracle-based execution model. When a trader opens a position, the trade executes at the price provided by a decentralized oracle network (Chainlink with a custom DON). The gDAI vault acts as the counterparty to all trades. This model offers some unique properties: trades execute at oracle price (no order book slippage), and the system can support non-crypto assets (forex, stocks, commodities) as long as an oracle feed exists.

perps.studio routes to central limit order books. Trades are matched against other traders' orders, with pricing determined by supply and demand. This is the same execution model used by every major centralized exchange.

Multi-Asset Support

One of Gains Network's distinguishing features is its multi-asset coverage, which is worth examining in detail.

Gains Network supports perpetual contracts on crypto, forex pairs (EUR/USD, GBP/USD, etc.), stock indices (via synthetic exposure), and commodities (gold, silver, oil). This is possible because the oracle-based model only needs a price feed—it does not need actual order book liquidity in each market. For teams that want to offer forex or commodity trading alongside crypto perps, this is a genuine differentiator.

perps.studio focuses on crypto perpetual futures available on Hyperliquid, which currently lists 100+ crypto markets. It does not support forex, stocks, or commodities. The trade-off is that the crypto markets available through perps.studio have deeper liquidity and more sophisticated execution (full order book with limit orders) compared to Gains Network's oracle-based crypto markets.

The right choice here depends on your target audience:

• If your users want crypto perps with professional-grade execution, perps.studio provides deeper liquidity and more order types
• If your users want multi-asset exposure including forex and commodities, Gains Network's broader asset coverage is relevant
• If crypto perps are the primary product and multi-asset is a nice-to-have, perps.studio's execution quality advantage typically outweighs Gains Network's asset breadth

Vault Model vs Fee Revenue Model

The economic models differ in how revenue is generated and who bears risk.

Gains Network's gDAI vault is the central economic mechanism. Depositors provide DAI to the vault, which earns trading fees and takes the other side of all trades. When traders lose, the vault profits; when traders win, the vault loses. Over time, the vault aims to be net positive due to fee collection and the statistical expectation that most leveraged traders lose money. gDAI depositors earn yield from this dynamic, but they face the risk of drawdowns during periods of high trader profitability.

perps.studio operators earn revenue purely from trading fee sharing. There is no vault to manage, no counterparty risk to absorb, and no dependency on trader PnL. Revenue is proportional to volume, regardless of whether traders are winning or losing.

For operators, the difference is significant:

• Gains Network approach: Build a frontend on gTrade (if possible) and earn referral fees, or fork the codebase and bootstrap your own vault—which requires attracting depositors willing to take counterparty risk
• perps.studio approach: Deploy a branded exchange, earn fee revenue from day one, no vault bootstrapping or LP management required

Leverage and Risk Parameters

Gains Network is known for offering very high leverage, particularly on forex pairs. Understanding how this compares to perps.studio is important for evaluating user experience.

Gains Network offers up to 150x leverage on crypto perpetuals and up to 1000x on forex pairs. The high forex leverage is possible because forex markets have lower volatility than crypto. However, Gains Network imposes position size caps that are relatively low—large traders may find they cannot open positions as large as they want due to vault utilization limits and OI caps. The spread and price impact fees also increase for larger positions.

perps.studio (via Hyperliquid) offers up to 50x leverage on major crypto pairs, with lower maximums on smaller-cap assets. While the maximum leverage is lower than Gains Network's headline numbers, the position size capacity is significantly larger. Hyperliquid's order book can absorb multi-million dollar positions on major pairs without excessive slippage, whereas Gains Network's OI caps may restrict large traders.

For most crypto traders, the practical difference matters more than the headline leverage number. A 50x leveraged position that can be sized in millions is more useful than a 150x leveraged position capped at hundreds of thousands.

Whitelabel and Operator Infrastructure

The operator tooling available on each platform determines how easily teams can build businesses on top of them.

Gains Network is primarily a single-frontend platform (gTrade). While the contracts are open-source and a few integrations exist, Gains Network does not offer turnkey whitelabel infrastructure. Building a branded frontend on Gains Network requires:

• Developing a custom trading interface
• Integrating with Gains Network's smart contracts
• Building your own referral and revenue attribution systems
• Managing the complexity of oracle-based execution in the UI

perps.studio is purpose-built as operator infrastructure with:

• Ready-made trading terminal with full branding customization
• Built-in referral system with multi-tier commission structures
• Automatic revenue sharing and fee attribution
• Sub-account management and vault features
• One-click trading and advanced order types

Teams that want to launch a branded trading platform will find perps.studio significantly faster to deploy. Teams that specifically need Gains Network's multi-asset coverage would need to invest in building their own frontend on gTrade's infrastructure, which is a substantially larger engineering undertaking.

When to Choose Each Platform

The decision between Gains Network and perps.studio depends on your specific requirements and target audience.

Gains Network (gTrade) is better suited when:

• You need multi-asset coverage (forex, stocks, commodities alongside crypto)
• You want to trade with very high leverage on forex pairs specifically
• You are a trader who values oracle-based pricing simplicity
• You want to provide liquidity to the gDAI vault and earn counterparty yield

perps.studio is better suited when:

• You want to launch a branded perpetual futures exchange for your community
• You need deep order book liquidity for crypto perps with professional execution
• You want built-in revenue sharing and referral infrastructure
• You need advanced order types, cross/isolated/portfolio margin, and sub-accounts
• You want to deploy quickly without building exchange infrastructure from scratch
• Your primary market is crypto perpetual futures, not forex or commodities

Both platforms have genuine strengths. Gains Network's oracle-based model and multi-asset support solve real problems. perps.studio's whitelabel infrastructure and order book liquidity solve different problems. The overlap is narrowest when considering the operator use case—perps.studio is explicitly designed for operators, while Gains Network is primarily a destination trading platform.