[OC-Investment] Elevate v10 Contest Prize Pool

Proposals
2

This addendum provides a high-level retrospective of the Trick or Trade campaign (Oct 22 - Nov 19). Refer to this Dune dashboard for more data insights.

1. Performance overview (vs. 30 days pre-contest)

The Trick or Trade contest generated a clear step-change in platform activity, particularly across core markets:

  • Total volume: 2.2x

  • Core volume: 2.75x

  • Fees: 2x

  • Core fees: 2.2x

  • Open Interest: 2.5x

  • Core OI: 5x+

  • Trader count: 1.5x

  • Incremental volume: +1.3B

  • Incremental fees: +$476K

Fee ROI: approximately 1:1 when considering ~$75K spent on marketing.

(Without the excess marketing costs, ROI would have been closer to 1.2x)

These improvements materially exceeded recent baseline levels across all core metrics.

2. Vault PnL

  • Total vault PnL: +$130K

  • Core vault PnL: +$260K

These results reinforce a growing trend under v10: core markets significantly reduce exposure risk, improve the stability of the PnL curve, and allow the protocol to scale with lower directional risk.

That said, vault PnL fluctuates meaningfully in the short term. Fee generation and low exposure remain the priority.

3. GNS Burns (BB&B Impact)

Elevated trading activity and the resulting fee + PnL generation drove a substantial wave of GNS buybacks and burns.

  • >750,000 GNS removed from supply during the contest
    • ie. >2.75% of the total supply at the time of writing

This confirms Trick or Trade was materially supportive to token-level deflation via BB&B.

4. Integrator Impact

Integrator participation was a meaningful amplifier:

  • Vooi contributed a strong share of incremental volume

  • Vooi users were incentivized via dual rewards (Vooi points + contest rewards)

    • A share of gTrade-native traders rotated into Vooi to double-dip

  • Overall integrator activity increased throughout the campaign

This validates that integrators can notably amplify campaign reach when incentives align.

5. Trader growth & retention

  • Trader count grew 1.5x, partially inflated by:

    • Vooi’s onboarding flows

    • Contest farmers creating fresh addresses

Retention metrics remain under review, but Trick or Trade successfully re-engaged many previously churned users and improved sentiment toward v10’s funding fee model for longer-held trades.

6. What Worked & What Didn’t

6.1 What Worked

Community Support & Sentiment

Sentiment improved significantly around:

  • v10’s funding fee model

  • Improved spreads and trading conditions

  • BB&B acceleration

  • A platform-wide “revival moment”

Core Market Performance

An important context point:

Prior to v10, gTrade core markets were not hedged via arbitrage or funding-fee farming. This meant that increases in demand often forced the protocol to constrain traders, via:

  • strict max OI ceilings

  • sudden borrowing-fee spikes as OI filled

Under v10, the presence of active arbitrageurs improves risk balancing, allowing the protocol to safely increase OI limits and support larger traders without punishing them via volatile fees.

This dynamic played a key role in the sustained growth in core OI during Trick or Trade.

Time-Weighted Volume Rewards

  • Strongest-performing mechanic

  • Directly increased core OI and longer trade durations

  • Encouraged traders to test swing/position trading under v10

  • Helped shift behavior away from rapid scalping

Integrator Participation

Vooi again proved to be an effective channel for reach and amplification.

6.2 What Didn’t Work That Well

Inorganic participation

A material percentage of rewards was captured by inorganic or opportunistic traders.

  • In the top 50 PnL wallets, ~40%+ of rewards were clearly inorganic

  • The real figure is likely higher

  • Majority of these addresses have been blacklisted or seen PnL slashed

This reflects a broader industry trend: simple retail directional trading is a shrinking share of the perp market.

Forced Close Rule (Design Flaw)

A misalignment in contest design forced traders to close positions for points to count.

This resulted in:

  • unnecessary OI churn after the participation deadline

  • traders sitting on losses until the contest ended

  • a dampened UX for swing and long-term traders

This was a clear lesson to avoid forcing close-outs in future formats.

Outreach campaign

Direct outreach (official posts + DMs + on-chain messages) on whitelist events generated <5 conversions out of ~4,000 targeted addresses.

Lead generation, segmentation, and pipelining remain areas for improvement.

Marketing agency engagement

Engagement with the partnered marketing agency delivered mixed results during the Trick or Trade campaign:

Securing Tier-1 PR placements proved difficult. Not because of agency underperformance, but because gTrade’s updates are primarily product-driven and promotional in nature, which many top outlets do not consider “newsworthy” by their editorial standards. This is a structural challenge for most projects without major fundraising announcements, token launches, or industry-moving events.

That said, it’s important to highlight:

  • ~35 articles and KOL activations were successfully delivered so far

  • Roughly 45% of the total credit pool remains unused, meaning there is still substantial room to work with the agency in question for future campaigns under the current agreement

  • We have not exhausted the partnership budget, and there is no financial issue. Simply a matter of aligning expectations with PR realities

In hindsight, a portion of these funds may have generated greater direct impact if allocated toward trader-centric initiatives (e.g., funded ambassadors, targeted outreach, performance-based incentives, referral campaigns). However, the remaining credits still gives us meaningful flexibility to support future trading competitions and / or broader growth efforts. A full list of deliverables will be shared once the engagement concludes.

7. Forward strategy & learnings

The contest delivered a modest but meaningful success, with strong second-order benefits:

  • Strengthened community morale

  • Validated v10’s long-term strategic direction

  • Allowed to secure the $150k grant

  • Demonstrated clear improvements in core market behavior

  • Repositioned gTrade as a suitable venue for medium- and long-term trades

Key learnings moving forward

  • Time-weighted volume incentives are an effective lever for shaping healthy platform behavior

  • Short-duration scalpers continue to dominate, and contests must explicitly counterbalance this wherever possible

  • Inorganic activity remains part of the addressable fee landscape. Not all of it is harmful, but prize-eligible behavior needs tighter guardrails

  • To scale sustainably, gTrade must continue building an alignment flywheel between:

    • Traders

    • Protocol revenue

    • BB&B

    • Token holders

Next steps

  • Run a December trading campaign (pending community approval)

  • Use the $150k grant unlock for a dedicated Q1 2026 contest on Arbitrum

  • Continue refining retention mechanics, including:

    • staked GNS fee discounts

    • potential trader-aligned vesting models

    • promotional fee reductions on select markets