GMGN affiliate program review: 10–30% of trading fees, under terms that ban public links

GMGN pays referrers 10% to 30% of the trading fees their referred traders generate, according to its cooperation guide, which invites “TG group members, Twitter followers, and friends” and dangles “over 40 Sol ($8000+) monthly” for the best referrers. Its terms of service, dated 6 December 2024, say the opposite about the channel: referral links are “personal and non-commercial”, may not be published “on commercial websites (such as coupon websites, Twitter, or Reddit) or on blogs”, and may not be advertised for money. We read the guides, both application forms, both sets of terms and the public rewards page on 28 September 2026. The rate range is documented and the fee base is a flat 1%. Everything else a publisher needs, from the payout rule to the name of the company that owes the money, is not written down anywhere. Our score is 5.5/10.

Who runs the program

GMGN is a memecoin trading terminal: a website, a mobile app and Telegram bots that scan new tokens on Solana, BSC, Base, Ethereum and Tron, track “smart money” wallets and execute trades from a wallet the bot holds or from a browser wallet. The referral program is a rebate on the 1% fee GMGN takes on every trade routed through it. There is no exchange account, no identity check in any of the documents and no fiat.

The only contract a referrer accepts is the website’s terms of service, last updated 6 December 2024. Clause 1.29 defines the other party as “GMGN.AI”, with no company name, number or address. Clause 16.1 chooses British Virgin Islands law, clause 16.2 sends every dispute to three arbitrators at the BVI International Arbitration Centre, clause 16.3 waives class claims, and clause 19.8 says the services are “controlled and offered by GMGN from the British Virgin Islands”. A place of control is not an incorporation record, and the contract points to none.

The app stores are more specific, and they disagree with each other. The Google Play listing names the developer as GMGN Labs Limited, Trinity Chambers, Road Town, British Virgin Islands, and carries the line “This app is not an exchange and does not provide investment advice”. The App Store listing names the seller as GraceMatrix Technologies Limited, describes the product as “a visual interface to decentralized protocols” that “does not issue, store, or manage any tokens or user funds”, gives a support address at gracematrix.io and links a separate terms document dated 1 January 2025. That document is the website contract with “GMGN” replaced by “Meme Tracker” throughout, including the same BVI clauses and the same referral section 18. Neither listing says which company pays commission. We would want the legal name on a written offer before invoicing anyone.

The professional route is a Google Form. The GMGN.AI KOL Collaboration Application asks what you are applying for (Referral, Cashback or Other Collaboration), your trading account UID, Telegram username, social links and preferred language. It publishes no rate, no review period and no contract; its footer says it was created inside a Google Workspace organisation called GrowthX, which identifies the form’s owner rather than the paying company. No licence or regulator is cited anywhere, and for a non-custodial trading interface none is claimed.

Commission structure

The cooperation guide is the rate card. Its heading promises “30% rebates, easily earn over $8000 monthly”; the body says “Earn 10% to 30% in commissions. The more trading volume you refer, the higher your rebate rate will be”, and links a form to “apply to increase rebate”. That is the whole schedule. It does not say that a new referrer starts at 10%, what volume moves the rate, or whether 30% is a ceiling; the referral guide repeats the same sentence. No CPA, no hybrid, no sub-affiliate level and no cap are mentioned.

The fee base is unusually clean. GMGN’s fee guide says the platform “only charges a 1% handling fee for a single transaction”, that priority and tip fees “are not collected by GMGN”, and that launchpad fees such as Pump.fun’s 1% are charged by the launchpad. The referral guide says a referrer earns “a commission from the trading fees” whether the referred trader uses the Telegram bot’s wallet or a browser wallet, and on any chain. So the commissionable amount is 1% of referred trade volume, before the referrer’s share:

Referred trade volume in a month	GMGN’s 1% fee	Referrer at 10%	Referrer at 30%
$10,000	$100	$10	$30
$100,000	$1,000	$100	$300
$1,000,000	$10,000	$1,000	$3,000

The public marketing does not match that table. The Solana commission-report link in the referral guide now lands on a rewards page which, to a visitor who is not logged in, shows “Invite Friends and Earn Commissions Get up to” and a counter that cycles $100, $500, $2,000 and $5,000 a month along a curve marked Vol.50k, Vol.250k, Vol.500k and Vol.1000k. No percentage appears. If the volume marks are dollars, $100 on $50,000 is a 20% share of the 1% fee and $5,000 on $1,000,000 is a 50% share, above the 30% the guide publishes. We treat the page as an illustration, not a rate, and the guide’s 10% to 30% as the only documented figure.

Two details of the application matter. Its “Cashback” option is a trader-side rebate on the same 1% fee, and nothing published says how a trader’s cashback and a referrer’s commission combine on one trade; Axiom, below, at least states that its share is computed on the fee net of discounts. And the onboarding is inconsistent: the referral guide and the Telegram group guide still link an older form, “KOL Rebate Collaboration with GMGN.AI”, which Google reports “is no longer accepting responses”, while the cooperation guide links the live one.

Attribution and cookies

GMGN runs its own attribution. The referral guide gives one referral code, shared between the website and every GMGN Telegram bot, and three link formats: a Telegram deep link that binds the code “when they click the link”, chain-specific bot links, and website links with a ref parameter that bind “after logging into their Telegram account on the website”. The website links take a chain parameter (sol, bsc, eth, tron, base, blast) and can point at a token or wallet page, so a link inside a token write-up can carry the code. No third-party tracking platform is involved.

The contract’s only attribution rule is clause 18.3: a referred individual may use one link, and if several referrers reach the same person, “only the individual associated with the Referral Link actually used by the referred individual to sign-up” is paid. That is neither first click nor last click; it is whichever link the account was created through. Nothing published states a cookie or code duration, whether the code sticks to the account for life, how a trader who already has an account can be attributed, or whether referring your own second wallet is allowed. The privacy notice, also dated 6 December 2024, describes session and persistent cookies and records “the webpage that referred you to our Website” and country-level location, but assigns no attribution window to any of it.

Group owners have a further channel. The Telegram group guide lets an admin add GMGN’s bots to a group and attach a referral code with the /set command, so every token-analysis and wallet-alert message the bot posts carries links that credit the admin when members trade. It is the most concrete creator use case GMGN documents, and exactly the distribution clause 18.1 prohibits.

Payouts

Nothing about affiliate payment is published. The referral guide links commission-report pages for ETH, Solana, Base and Tron, behind a login; it does not say when a balance becomes payable, in what asset, on which chain, at what minimum, or whether the referrer claims it or receives it. No first-payment deadline, holdback, transfer fee or clawback period appears in any document. The only settlement rules GMGN publishes concern withdrawals from the wallet its Telegram bot holds for a trader, in the wallet guide:

Wallet rule	What the guide says
Where withdrawals happen	Only on the website; the Telegram bot “doesn’t support direct withdrawal operations”
Before the first withdrawal	Google Authenticator must be bound and a whitelist address set; withdrawals are locked until then
First whitelist setup, or a change	No withdrawals for 3 hours
Authenticator re-bound	24-hour withdrawal hold
Private keys	Cannot be exported on any chain, including wallets you imported
Maximum withdrawal	Leaves a balance for rent and network fees

Those rules govern money that is already in a GMGN wallet. They say nothing about when commission arrives there, or whether it arrives there at all rather than being paid to an address you name. If it is credited to the wallet the bot holds, the table is your exit route, and the private-key line means the exit runs only through GMGN’s withdrawal flow. Before budgeting anything, we would ask for one worked statement: eligible fees, assigned rate, deductions, credit date and the on-chain transfer. Our KAST affiliate program review covers the same gap between a published reward and a documented way to receive it.

The terms that bite

Section 18 of the terms of service (6 December 2024) is a consumer refer-a-friend clause bolted onto a program that its own guides market to KOLs. Read together with the general clauses:

• 18.1(i), the channel ban. “Referrals are personal and should only be sent to individuals that you personally know and must be used only for personal and non-commercial purposes. The sharing of Referral Links outside of your warm network of personal connections is strictly prohibited. Referral Links may not be published or distributed, including on commercial websites (such as coupon websites, Twitter, or Reddit) or on blogs.” The same paragraph prohibits “paying to advertise any Referral Link” and giving “anything of value” to a referred person to obtain a commission.
• 18.1(ii), the disclosure and the disclaimer. You must tell each referred person that you receive a reward and obtain their “express consent” before sharing a link, and every statement you make about GMGN must be “accompanied by a clear, conspicuous statement that any statements made reflect only your opinion and not those of GMGN”. You indemnify GMGN for any breach of the section.
• 18.1(iii), no authority. Participation does not authorise “any statements on behalf of GMGN”, and “all such statements are expressly disapproved”.
• 18.2, termination and retroactive forfeiture. GMGN “may suspend or terminate the Referral Program or your ability to participate in it at any time for any reason”, may “deactivate Referral Links or change the Incentives … at any time for any reason”, and may “retroactively revoke or void any Incentive” procured “via distribution through unauthorized channels” or associated with content that “disparages or damages the goodwill, reputation, or brand image of GMGN”.
• General clauses. 4.1 lets GMGN change its fee schedule “at any time”, which moves the commission base; 15.2 lets it end service “for any reason”; the preamble makes changes effective 30 days after posting for existing users and lets Supplemental Terms override the general ones; 5.2 and 5.3 exclude nationals and residents of Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Syria, anyone on UN, OFAC or EU sanctions lists, and anyone supplying the service to them.

Set that against the cooperation guide’s “Invite your TG group members, Twitter followers, and friends”, the referral guide’s “If you’re a KOL, you can use the first format”, and a group feature built to seed referral links into public chats. Either the guides describe a channel the contract has not caught up with, or the contract is the document GMGN will reach for when a rebate is disputed; 18.2 lets it void commission for “unauthorized channels” after the fact. The Supplemental Terms path is the way out: a KOL agreement naming the channels, the rate and the paying company would override section 18. No such supplement is public, and the application form does not contain one.

Two comparisons put the clause in context. BloFin’s affiliate terms go further on speech and bar affiliates from expressing opinions about the program at all, as our BloFin affiliate program review sets out; GMGN permits opinions but demands a disclaimer on each and lets itself void earnings over content it considers disparaging. On paid traffic, GMGN’s ban is broader than the brand-bidding rules exchanges write: any paid advertising of a referral link is prohibited, so a display campaign on a crypto network such as Coinzilla would need written permission first, not just a compliant landing page.

What affiliates report

There is no affiliate-specific record, so the brand’s Trustpilot page is the data. On 28 September 2026 it showed 1.9 out of 5 from 27 reviews: 82% one-star, 11% five-star, 7% four-star, with three reviews in the previous twelve months. GMGN claimed the profile in June 2026 and has since replied to every negative review; the replies are dated between 8 June and 8 September 2026, most of them on 8 and 9 June, answering complaints that were by then a year old.

The complaints are trading complaints. The most recent, from 27 August 2026, describes losses to rug pulls, bundled buys and wash trading that the filters did not catch; GMGN’s reply of 8 September calls itself “a data aggregator and trading tool, not a token issuer or a centralized exchange” and says its filters “are detection, not a guarantee”. A review from 28 May 2026 says a wallet held by GMGN’s Telegram bot was drained; the reply blames a phishing bot impersonating GMGN. Several 2025 reviews describe withdrawals that would not go through; the replies say a small SOL balance must remain for network fees and that withdrawals require 2FA. Two of the five-star reviews, from January and September 2025, say the losses others describe are the market’s doing. Not one of the 27 mentions referral commission, and we found no dated complaint about an unpaid GMGN rebate elsewhere. That absence is not a payment record; the program has no public one in either direction.

One operational note. GMGN’s own Q&A warns that “official administrators will never take the initiative to send private messages to anyone, nor will they ask you for private keys”, and several Trustpilot replies blame impersonating bots for drained wallets. A referrer who publishes a link fields those messages first.

GMGN against the alternatives

The nearest comparable schemes are the referral programs of two other on-chain trading tools, read the same day. Neither is a negotiated publisher contract either, so the comparison is of what each puts in writing.

Program	Published share	Fee base	Channel rule	Payment terms published
GMGN	10% to 30%, rising with referred volume; ladder unpublished	1% of every trade	Terms ban public posting and paid ads; guides invite both	None
Axiom	30% direct, 3% second level, 2% third level, “no cap”	Net fee, “starting at 1% then adjusted for user discounts and promotions”; some tokens excluded; referred users get 10% off	None published on the referral page	None on the referral page
Trojan	“Up to 35% referral share across 5 layers”; per-layer split not stated in text	Trading fees; all users also get 20% cashback	None published on the rewards page	“Paid out daily” to the trading wallet or a wallet you set

Axiom’s page is the clearest on the base: discounts and promotions reduce the commissionable fee and some tokens are excluded, so a referrer can model the number. We have since read Axiom’s Terms of Use, which make the rate, the payout timing and any unclaimed balance discretionary; see our Axiom affiliate program review. Trojan is the only one with a stated payment cadence, daily, though its 35% headline is the sum across five layers rather than a direct rate. GMGN’s 10% to 30% matches Axiom’s 30% only at the top of a ladder it does not publish, and it is the only one of the three whose contract expressly forbids the public distribution the other two assume. For programs built for publishers rather than friends, with cookie windows and payout floors in writing, see our crypto exchange affiliate programs comparison.

Verdict

5.5/10. Credit for a published rate range on a published, flat fee base, one code that works across the website and every bot, deep links that survive inside a token write-up, and a group feature that most trading tools do not offer. That keeps it above 5: the rates are public, the product is live, and there is no complaint about an unpaid rebate.

What keeps it below 6, where we placed KAST with a similar payout gap, is the contract. Our rubric reserves 8 and above for a cookie of 30 days or more, a published percentage and a monthly payout; GMGN publishes no attribution window, no payout rule and no paying company, and section 18 prohibits the publishing, posting and paid promotion that make a publisher a publisher, while reserving the right to void commission retroactively for using those channels. Until GMGN issues a KOL supplement naming the entity, the permitted channels, the rate and the settlement, the public offer is a friend-referral scheme with a marketing page attached. We would run it only under such a supplement, and keep the first earned balance small until one payment has been watched from report to wallet.

FAQ

What is the GMGN affiliate commission?

10% to 30% of the 1% fee GMGN charges on each referred trade, per its cooperation guide, with the rate rising with referred volume. No volume ladder or starting tier is published; higher rates are granted by application through a Google Form. On $100,000 of referred monthly volume that is $100 at 10% and $300 at 30%.

How and when does GMGN pay referral commission?

It does not say. No minimum, calendar, payout asset, chain or claim procedure is published; the commission reports sit behind a login on the rewards page. The only withdrawal rules GMGN publishes are for the wallet its Telegram bot holds: website only, two-factor authentication and a whitelisted address, with 3-hour and 24-hour holds after security changes.

Is the GMGN affiliate program legit?

The program exists, the rate range is on GMGN’s own documentation, the product is live and an application form is open. What is missing is a named paying company, any payment terms, and a contract that permits public promotion. Trustpilot’s 27 reviews, at 1.9 out of 5, are about trading losses and wallet incidents, not about commission. Yeet, a crypto casino, is the mirror image: rates, formula and even an API published, and no payment terms at all; see our Yeet affiliate program review.

What is the difference between a GMGN referral code and the KOL program?

Every account gets a referral code, shared between the website and the Telegram bots, and earns the base rebate. The KOL route is the “GMGN.AI KOL Collaboration Application” form, which asks for your UID, Telegram handle and social links and lets you request a higher rate, cashback or another form of cooperation. The form publishes no rate and grants no contract; whatever is agreed afterwards is private.

Does GMGN have a lifetime referral cookie?

Nothing published says so. The code binds when the referred trader clicks a bot link or logs in with Telegram on the website, and clause 18.3 pays the link “actually used” at signup. No duration, expiry or lifetime promise appears in the guides, the terms or the privacy notice.

Can I post my GMGN referral link on X, Telegram or my website?

GMGN’s guides invite it and its terms forbid it. Clause 18.1 limits links to people you personally know and bans publishing them on “commercial websites (such as coupon websites, Twitter, or Reddit) or on blogs”, or paying to advertise them, and clause 18.2 allows earned commission to be voided for distribution “through unauthorized channels”. Get written permission naming your channels before you publish a commission-bearing link.

adbench.io does not promote memecoin trading; this article is about the affiliate contract. adbench.io earns nothing from the programs discussed here. We do not use referral links.