[Final Grant Report] GMX Perpetuals Trading - Updraft Developer Course

DAO Programs & Initiatives Domain Allocator Offerings (prev Questbook)
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GMX Perpetuals Trading - Updraft Developer Course

Executive Summary

  • Project Name: GMX Perpetuals Trading Course - Cyfrin Updraft x GMX

  • Questbook Application: GMX Perpetual Trading Updraft Developer Course

  • Website & Socials:

  • Summary:

    This grant supported a strategic partnership between Arbitrum, GMX (the leading permissionless Perpetual DEX on Arbitrum), and Cyfrin Updraft (the industry-leading Web3 developer education platform) to produce and launch a comprehensive, free educational course on the GMX protocol.

    The GMX Perpetuals Trading course is now live on Cyfrin Updraft. It covers 107 lessons across over 4 hours of professional video content, including embedded quizzes, written guides, and a hands-on capstone project (building a Funding Fee Farming Vault). The course is freely accessible to all developers worldwide.

    Over its first two quarters since launch, the course reached 170,000+ developers across marketing channels, achieved 4,436 cumulative unique course views, and maintained a 16.91% completion rate.

  • Impact of the Grant:

    The Arbitrum DAO grant was the critical enabler for the production and launch of this course. While the foundational research phase was co-funded by the GMX team, the grant directly funded:

    • Full professional production of 107 video and written lessons (4+ hours of content)
    • A hands-on capstone project and 16 embedded knowledge-check quizzes
    • A major multi-channel developer outreach campaign that exceeded reach targets by over 3.4x (170,000+ vs. the 50,000 target)
    • 12 months of ongoing course maintenance, developer relations, and content updates, including the addition of new modules on GMX Express (gasless trading) and TWAP Orders post-launch
    • Positioning of GMX and Arbitrum as the premier destination for advanced DeFi development education, in front of Cyfrin Updraft’s global community of 150,000+ developers

    Without this grant, this course would not have been produced to the quality standard or at the scale that this initiative required.

2. Performance Against KPIs

Milestone 1 - Course Production

Deliverable Target Actual Status
Minimum video content length 3 hours 4+ hours Exceeded
Number of lessons - 107 lessons Delivered
Embedded quizzes - 16 quizzes Delivered
Capstone project 1 1 (Funding Fee Farming Vault + 4 bonus exercises) Delivered
Course live on Updraft platform Yes Yes Complete

Milestone 2 - Course Launch & Developer Outreach

Channel Target Actual Status
Total unique reach across channels 50,000 170,000+ Exceeded
Email sends (Updraft developer base) - 83,200 Achieved
Twitter/X impressions - 66,432 Achieved
LinkedIn impressions - 10,749 Achieved
Newsletter deliveries - 13,647 Achieved
AMA / Livestream Yes Yes (~50 live listeners, GMX x Arbitrum DAO x Cyfrin) Achieved

Milestone 3 - Success Metrics (Q3-Q4 2025)

KPI Target Q3 Actual Q4 Cumulative Status
Unique course views 4,000+ 3,169 4,436 Achieved in Q4
Course completion rate 25-30% 15.87% 16.91% Below target (see note)
Students scoring ≥60% on quizzes >50% - ~85% pass rate Exceeded
Average student satisfaction ≥8/10 - 9.25/10 Indicative (see note)

Note on Completion Rate: The 16.91% completion rate is below the 25-30% target. This is primarily attributable to the advanced technical depth of the course, covering perpetual DEX mechanics, funding rates, liquidation pricing, and P&L calculations. Within Cyfrin Updraft’s portfolio, advanced DeFi protocol courses typically see completion rates in the lower end of the 20-55% range. Additionally, many advanced developers use the course as a reference resource, accessing specific modules rather than completing it end-to-end, which is common behaviour in professional technical education. We view the 40% growth in views from Q3 to Q4 and the 85% quiz pass rate as stronger indicators of real developer engagement and learning outcomes.

Note on Satisfaction Score: The satisfaction survey was distributed via email after course completion and received only 0.5% response rate. The indicative average score was 9.25/10, but this cannot be considered statistically conclusive. For future iterations, a built-in survey prompt triggered immediately upon course completion will be considered to improve response rates and data quality.

3. Qualitative Impact & Community Feedback

Most Significant Non-Quantitative Outcome:

The most meaningful outcome of this initiative is the establishment of GMX and Arbitrum as the canonical example of advanced perpetual DEX development in developer education. The course is now a freely accessible resource for every developer entering DeFi, making GMX a standard part of how Web3 developers learn. This creates a compounding pipeline effect: developers who learn DeFi through this course will naturally reach for GMX and Arbitrum as their first-choice infrastructure for building perpetuals-based protocols.

Content Highlights:

  • The capstone project (Funding Fee Farming Vault) gives developers a production-ready example of a GMX-based protocol, lowering the barrier to building on GMX

  • Post-launch, new modules on GMX Express (gasless trading via meta-transaction relays and Gelato’s network) and TWAP Orders were added to keep pace with GMX’s evolution, demonstrating the value of the 12-month maintenance commitment

Quiz Performance Highlights:

  • 39% of all quiz attempts achieved a perfect score of 100
  • 85% of attempts scored ≥60 (the pass threshold)
  • Average of 3.1 attempts per student, indicating motivated, goal-oriented learners
  • High retake behaviour reflects a well-calibrated quiz: challenging but achievable

Social Media & Promotion:

  • AMA co-hosted by GMX, Arbitrum DAO, and Cyfrin, bringing together all three partners to promote the course to the broader ecosystem
  • Multi-channel campaign across Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Discord, YouTube, and the Updraft newsletter

(Links to specific social posts and AMA recording can be provided upon request; please refer to the marketing spreadsheet shared in Milestone 2 reporting for the full social post log: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13TrSnIkaONTbNn5HZ2r5CwUBHXQUlibsLGnQOpiGifE)

4. Financial Summary

The full $50,000 grant was deployed as originally budgeted, across two primary phases:

Category Budget Allocation % of Total Notes
Personnel / Team Costs (Educators, Security Researcher, Platform Lead) $30,000 60% Curriculum development, video production, scripting, code walkthroughs, quizzes. Led by Tasuku Nakamura (Solidity by Example), Patrick Collins, and Vitto Rivabella.
Equipment & Materials (Video production, animation, editing assets) $5,000 10% Specialized animated explainers for GMX mechanics; additional storage and rendering infrastructure for high-resolution content.
Infrastructure / Software (Platform hosting, storage, backend) $5,000 10% Video storage, bandwidth delivery, course platform uptime, code repositories, and interactive exercises for the full 12-month period.
Marketing / DevRel Outreach $3,000 6% DevRel coordination, newsletter distribution, ecosystem engagement, and co-marketing campaigns.
Community Management, Feedback & Content Updates $7,000 14% Developer Q&A (Discord/GitHub) and curriculum updates, including GMX Express and TWAP Orders modules added post-launch.
Total $50,000 100%

There were no material variances from the original budget plan. The addition of new modules (GMX Express, TWAP Orders) post-launch was absorbed within the maintenance budget as planned.

5. Future Plans & Continued Ecosystem Alignment

Cyfrin remains deeply integrated in the Arbitrum ecosystem:

  • Cyfrin is a whitelisted security provider in the Arbitrum Audit Program, meaning Arbitrum protocols have an established pathway to access Cyfrin’s audit and security review services

  • We are open to continued grant collaboration with the Arbitrum DAO on new developer education initiatives aligned with ecosystem priorities

6. Additional Remarks

We would like to close this report with a sincere thank you to the Arbitrum DAO for the trust placed in this initiative and for the support that made it possible. This collaboration has been a genuinely rewarding one, bringing together three communities (Arbitrum, GMX, and Cyfrin Updraft) around a shared commitment to developer education and ecosystem growth..

We look forward to continuing to contribute to the Arbitrum ecosystem and hope this is the first of many collaborations. If there are future education initiatives, developer onboarding programmes, or ecosystem priorities where Cyfrin Updraft can play a role, we would welcome that conversation.

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Thank you to the Cyfrin team (and partners at GMX) for a professional, detailed, and largely on-budget execution.

This is a solid, transparent final report for a $50k education grant. It demonstrates good accountability, clear linkage of funding to deliverables, and honest discussion of underperformance. From a DAO governance standpoint, education grants like this are high-leverage for long-term ecosystem growth (developer mindshare, builder pipeline, protocol stickiness), but they require rigorous evaluation of durable impact versus vanity metrics.

Key positives worth recognizing:

• The grant clearly unlocked high-quality production (107 lessons, 4+ hours of video, quizzes, and a practical Funding Fee Farming Vault capstone) that would not have happened at this standard or scale otherwise.

• Outreach substantially exceeded targets (170k+ reach vs 50k), and the course is freely available on a reputable platform with an existing large developer audience.

• Post-launch maintenance was delivered as promised (new modules on GMX Express and TWAP Orders), showing genuine commitment beyond the initial launch.

• Budget transparency is excellent — no material variances, clear allocation (60% personnel, sensible ongoing maintenance), and co-funding of the research phase by GMX.

• Strong qualitative framing: positioning GMX/Arbitrum as a canonical advanced DeFi education resource creates compounding network effects.

• Honest notes on the completion-rate shortfall and low survey response rate demonstrate maturity rather than spin.

This collaboration between Arbitrum DAO, GMX, and Cyfrin is a good model for multi-party ecosystem education initiatives.

Overall: Positive.

The project met or exceeded most production and reach KPIs and delivered tangible educational assets that remain publicly available. The 85% quiz pass rate (≥60%) and high perfect-score rate (39%) are encouraging signals of learning quality among those who engage deeply. The capstone project is particularly valuable as a production-oriented artifact.

However, the completion rate (16.91% vs 25–30% target) is a material shortfall. The explanation (advanced content + reference-use behavior) is plausible and consistent with industry patterns for deep technical courses, but it weakens the claim of broad “developer pipeline” impact. Unique views reaching the target only in Q4 cumulative, combined with a 0.5% survey response rate, means we have limited high-confidence data on actual learning outcomes, retention, or conversion into GMX/Arbitrum builders.

Governance lens:

• Value for money: Reasonable for $50k given the content volume, production quality, and 12-month maintenance. Education ROI is inherently long-tail and hard to measure precisely.

• Risk of “set-and-forget”: The report leans heavily on reach and positioning. Without stronger downstream metrics (e.g., GitHub activity on the vault, new GMX integrations by course alumni, or sustained monthly active learners), it is harder to justify similar future grants at scale.

• Accountability: Strong on delivery and budget; weaker on outcome measurement design (survey methodology, completion tracking, builder conversion).

• Strategic fit: Aligns well with Arbitrum’s goals of attracting sophisticated DeFi developers and reinforcing GMX as flagship infrastructure.

This should be viewed as a successful pilot that strengthens the case for continued (but more metrics-driven) education funding, not as an automatic template for larger or repeated grants without tighter success criteria.

Questions for Clarification @Cyfrin

1. Builder conversion & downstream impact: Do you have any data (even anecdotal or sampled) on course completers or high-engagement users who subsequently deployed contracts on Arbitrum, integrated GMX, forked the Funding Fee Farming Vault, or contributed to related open-source work? Any GitHub stars/forks, on-chain activity, or Discord/GitHub support tickets that indicate real usage?

2. Completion-rate diagnosis: Beyond the advanced-nature explanation, do you have drop-off analytics by module? Which sections saw the highest abandonment, and are there plans to modularize or create “quick-start / intermediate” tracks to improve end-to-end completion while preserving depth?

3. Survey & satisfaction methodology: With only 0.5% response rate, how was the 9.25/10 figure calculated, and what was the absolute number of responses? Will the planned in-course completion prompt be implemented, and can baseline data be shared once available?

4. Ongoing metrics post-grant: What are the current (or most recent) monthly unique views, completion trends, and active learner numbers beyond the reported Q3–Q4 window? How will the 12-month maintenance period transition after the grant ends?

5. Attribution & co-funding: Can you quantify GMX’s co-funding contribution to the research phase and any ongoing support? How was the Arbitrum DAO’s role specifically highlighted in marketing materials and the course itself?

6. Future collaboration design: If proposing additional education grants, what refined KPIs would you recommend (e.g., minimum completers who ship something on-chain, GitHub activity thresholds, or cohort-based builder retention) to better demonstrate ROI to delegates?

7. Open access & sustainability: Is the full course (videos, quizzes, capstone code) permanently free and open, or are there any planned restrictions? Are the code repositories and lesson materials fully public on GitHub for independent verification and reuse?

Happy to discuss any of these points further or review supporting materials (marketing spreadsheet, quiz analytics, capstone repo, etc.).

Overall, this is a constructive contribution to the ecosystem thank you for the thorough reporting.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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Great to see a free course helping more people learn about GMX and Arbitrum. For beginners, what was usually harder: understanding how GMX works or getting set up with a wallet and the right network?

I help with support at Gem Wallet, so knowing where new users get stuck is helpful.