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What Is Lighter?

Lighter (ticker LIT) is a decentralized exchange for perpetual futures, built as an application-specific zk-rollup on Ethereum. Unlike exchanges that rely on liquidity pools, Lighter runs a central limit order book, and it proves the correctness of its order matching and liquidations using zero-knowledge proofs verified on Ethereum. LIT is its native token, which launched in December 2025.

Lighter's matching engine runs off-chain for speed, but its behavior is not something users have to trust: the exchange generates zero-knowledge validity proofs that its matching and liquidations followed the rules, and those proofs are verified on Ethereum. This gives it three marketed properties. It is verifiable, because matching and liquidations are cryptographically proven. It is scalable, targeting high order throughput and fast soft finality. And it is efficient, offering zero trading fees for retail traders while charging competitive fees to high-frequency traders. Deposits and withdrawals settle through Ethereum.

Lighter was founded by Vladimir Novakovski, a former Citadel engineer and trader who previously co-founded the social app Lunchclub. Much of the early engineering team carried over from that company. The project is operated by a U.S. company, Elliot Technologies, and its open-source components live under a public GitHub organization.

The exchange raised significant venture funding as it grew into one of the larger on-chain perpetuals venues by volume. A 2024 seed round was led by Haun Ventures and Craft Ventures, and a larger 2025 round at a valuation reported around $1.5 billion was led by Founders Fund and Ribbit Capital, with participation from Haun Ventures, Dragonfly, Craft Ventures, and others.

LIT has a fixed maximum supply of 1 billion tokens, with no inflation. Its token generation event took place on December 30, 2025, and a large share of the supply was airdropped to participants in Lighter's multi-season points program. Team and investor allocations are subject to a cliff and multi-year unlock. Reported utility for LIT includes staking, fee-related benefits, and buyback-and-burn funded by protocol revenue; because retail trading is free, LIT is not a per-trade fee token.

It is worth noting that the LIT ticker was previously associated with a different project, Litentry, which has since rebranded to Heima and trades under a new ticker. In current usage, LIT refers to Lighter.

Getting Started With Lighter

Trading on Lighter and holding LIT involves an EVM wallet and Ethereum-based assets:

  1. Step 1: Set up an EVM wallet such as MetaMask or Rabby.
  2. Step 2: Fund it with ETH or stablecoins on Ethereum.
  3. Step 3: Connect to the Lighter app to deposit and trade perpetuals, or acquire LIT.
  4. Step 4: Consider staking LIT for its associated benefits once you hold it.

How to Get a Lighter Wallet?

LIT is an Ethereum ERC-20 token, so any Ethereum-compatible wallet will work.

MetaMask

MetaMask is the most widely used Ethereum wallet, available as a browser extension and mobile app. It connects to the Lighter app and can hold LIT.

Rabby

Rabby is a DeFi-focused wallet with helpful transaction previews, well suited to trading on Lighter and managing ERC-20 tokens like LIT.

Hardware Wallets

A Ledger device can be paired with MetaMask or Rabby to keep your keys offline, which is recommended for larger holdings.

Lighter Resources

How to Buy Lighter?

LIT can be bought on centralized exchanges or on Lighter's own market.

Centralized Exchanges

LIT is listed on exchanges including Bybit, OKX, Gate, KuCoin, Bitget, Coinbase, and MEXC, typically against USDT or USD.

Decentralized Exchanges

LIT trades on Lighter's own spot market. Fund an EVM wallet with ETH or stablecoins on Ethereum, connect to the Lighter app, and swap into LIT.

Latest Lighter News

Lighter grew rapidly through 2025 into one of the top decentralized perpetuals exchanges by trading volume, alongside a large funding round at a valuation reported near $1.5 billion. Its LIT token launched at the end of December 2025 with a substantial airdrop to points-program participants, followed by listings across major centralized exchanges.

Because volume figures, listings, and token details change quickly, the official website, documentation, and X account are the best sources for the current state of the exchange and the LIT token.