Lighter vs Aster
Lighter is cheaper: a $1,000 buy-and-sell costs $0.00 in platform fees vs $0.80 on Aster. Pick Lighter if you are non-US, non-UK retail perps traders who want zero trading fees and can accept slower taker execution than paid accounts. Pick Aster if you are non-US, non-UK traders who want zero maker fees on order-book perps, very high leverage modes, or privacy-shielded orders.
Checked 2026-10-16 · both venues' fee pagesLighter is an order-book perpetuals and spot exchange running as a ZK rollup on Ethereum, operated by Elliot Technologies, Inc. Its default Standard account trades with zero maker and taker fees; lower-latency Premium and Plus accounts pay fees.
Aster is a decentralized perpetuals exchange offering order-book perps on crypto, stocks and commodities, plus a Shield Mode with order privacy, a one-click 1001x mode and spot trading. It runs on Aster Chain, its own privacy-focused layer 1, which announced mainnet in March 2026.
Lighter saves $0.80 per $1,000 round trip.
Side by side
| Lighter | Aster | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Perp DEX | Perp DEX |
| Status | live | live |
| Chains | Ethereum | Aster Chain, BNB Chain, Arbitrum |
| Platforms | web, ios, android | web |
| Custody | non-custodial | non-custodial |
| KYC | none | none |
| Platform fee, round trip | 0% | 0.08% |
| $1,000 round trip | $0.00 | $0.80 |
| Sign-up perk | 10% discount on fees paid, rebated every Monday; first week of Premium/Advanced fees rebated | Whatever share of the 10% the referrer passes back as a fee discount (for example 5%) |
| Perps taker / maker | 0% / 0% | 0.04% / 0% |
| United States | Not available | Not available |
| United Kingdom | Not available | Not available |
| European Union | Unverified | Unverified |
| Launched | 2025-10 | 2025-03 |
| Reported incidents | 2 | 2 |
Features
| Feature | Lighter | Aster |
|---|---|---|
| perps | ✓ | ✓ |
| spot | ✓ | ✓ |
| order book | ✓ | ✓ |
| zero-fee standard account | ✓ | — |
| RWA perps | ✓ | ✓ |
| pre-IPO markets | ✓ | — |
| public pools | ✓ | — |
| LLP vault | ✓ | — |
| multi-asset margin | ✓ | — |
| sub-accounts | ✓ | — |
| API | ✓ | — |
| mobile app | ✓ | — |
| stock perps | — | ✓ |
| 1001x leverage | — | ✓ |
| Shield Mode privacy | — | ✓ |
| hidden orders | — | ✓ |
| VIP tiers | — | ✓ |
| ALP vault | — | ✓ |
"—" means the feature was not in the sources we checked, not proof it's missing.
Lighter: watch out for
- Free Standard accounts carry 300 ms taker latency versus 140 ms on paid Premium accounts.
- The Terms exclude US, Canadian and UK residents, among others.
- A roughly four-hour outage during the October 2025 crash left users unable to manage positions.
Aster: watch out for
- The Terms bar residents of the US, Canada and the UK, among others.
- VIP discounts need large ASTER holdings as well as volume, up to 2.5M ASTER for VIP 6.
- DefiLlama delisted Aster's perp volume in October 2025 over wash-trading concerns.
FAQ
Is Lighter better than Aster?
Lighter is cheaper: a $1,000 buy-and-sell costs $0.00 in platform fees vs $0.80 on Aster. Pick Lighter if you are non-US, non-UK retail perps traders who want zero trading fees and can accept slower taker execution than paid accounts. Pick Aster if you are non-US, non-UK traders who want zero maker fees on order-book perps, very high leverage modes, or privacy-shielded orders.
Which is cheaper, Lighter or Aster?
Lighter. On a $1,000 round trip: Lighter $0.00 vs Aster $0.80, platform fees only.
Can I use Lighter or Aster in the US?
Lighter: not available. Aster: not available. Based on each venue's own terms.
Sources
Last checked . Fees and terms change often; the venue's own page wins if it disagrees with ours.
- Lighter Docs: Trading Fees — checked 2026-10-16
- Lighter Docs: LIT Fee Credits — checked 2026-10-16
- Lighter Docs: Referral Program — checked 2026-10-16
- Lighter Docs: Introduction — checked 2026-10-16
- Lighter Terms of Service (last updated December 29, 2025) — checked 2026-10-16
- Lighter Mobile on the App Store (linked from app.lighter.xyz) — checked 2026-10-16
- Aster Docs: Fees (perpetuals) — checked 2026-10-16
- Aster Docs: VIP Program (General Perpetuals fee table) — checked 2026-10-16
- Aster Docs: 1001x Fees & Slippage — checked 2026-10-16
- Aster Docs: Referral Program — checked 2026-10-16
- Aster Docs: What is Aster? — checked 2026-10-16
- Aster Terms & Conditions (last updated February 25, 2026) — checked 2026-10-16