Multiplier points

A GMX reward that accrues to staked GMX and esGMX and boosts the staker's share of fee rewards the longer the stake remains in place. Unstaking burns them in proportion to the amount withdrawn.

Definition

Multiplier points accrue continuously to a staked GMX or esGMX balance and, once staked themselves, increase the rate at which that position earns fee rewards. They are not a tradable token and have no price of their own.

What they are actually for

They reward duration rather than size. Two stakers with the same balance earn differently if one has held longer, which is the mechanism the protocol uses to discourage capital that arrives for a good week and leaves.

Compared with paying more tokens, this is a cheaper way to create the same stickiness: it costs the protocol no new emissions, it redistributes a share of existing fee income towards stakers who stayed.

The catch that decides behaviour

Unstaking burns multiplier points in proportion to what you withdraw. Take out part of your stake, and you lose the same share of the accumulated boost, permanently.

That makes exiting more expensive the longer you have been in, and the cost is not visible as a fee. It shows up as a lower reward rate afterwards, on the portion you kept.

How to think about it

As a lock-up you agreed to gradually rather than up front. The boost is real income, and the accumulated points are real value that disappears on exit, so the decision to unstake is worth taking deliberately rather than as a routine rebalance.

It also means a stated staking APR is not the same for everyone. A long-standing position earns at a higher effective rate than a new one, and a headline figure sits somewhere between the two.

Where you will run into it

On the GMX staking screens, in the rewards breakdown alongside fee rewards and esGMX, and in any comparison of GMX staking against other yield options, where the exit cost belongs in the calculation.