Lighter
Lighter 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.
Cost: Standard accounts (the default) pay 0% maker and 0% taker on perps and spot, with 300 ms taker latency. Opt-in Premium/Advanced accounts pay 0.004% maker / 0.028% taker with 140 ms taker latency, discounted up to 30% by staking LIT. Opt-in Plus accounts pay 0.005% (0.5 bps) both sides. A $1,000 buy-and-sell costs about $0.00 in Lighter fees.
Checked 2026-10-16 · sources below- Round trip fee
- 0% buy + sell, platform fee
- $1,000 buy + sell
- $0.00 before network + pool fees
- US availability
- Not available UK: not available · EU: unverified
More on Lighter: Is it legit? · Referral code · Fees · Alternatives
DEXSHEETYou get: 10% discount on fees paid, rebated every Monday; first week of Premium/Advanced fees rebated.
- Custody
- non-custodial
- KYC
- none
- Platforms
- web, ios, android
- Launched
- 2025-10
Users paid Lighter about $5.9M in fees in the 30 days to 2026-10-17 (DefiLlama) — a rough measure of how much it is actually used.
Best for: Non-US, non-UK retail perps traders who want zero trading fees and can accept slower taker execution than paid accounts.
Lighter fees
| Fee | Type | Rate | Applies to | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard account trading fee | protocol | 0% | Buy and sell | Default account; 300 ms taker latency, 0 ms maker latency |
| Premium/Advanced taker fee | protocol | 0.028% | Buy and sell | Opt-in; 0 LIT staked; maker 0.004%; 140 ms taker latency |
| Plus account fee | protocol | 0.005% | Buy and sell | Opt-in; 0.5 bps maker and taker; higher API rate limits |
Fee tiers
| Tier | Rate | Requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | 0% | default account |
| Premium, 0 LIT | 0.028% | opt-in; maker 0.0040% |
| Premium, 1,000 LIT | 0.027% | 1,000 LIT staked (2.5% off); maker 0.0039% |
| Premium, 3,000 LIT | 0.027% | 3,000 LIT staked (5% off); maker 0.0038% |
| Premium, 10,000 LIT | 0.025% | 10,000 LIT staked (10% off); maker 0.0036% |
| Premium, 30,000 LIT | 0.024% | 30,000 LIT staked (15% off); maker 0.0034% |
| Premium, 100,000 LIT | 0.022% | 100,000 LIT staked (20% off); maker 0.0032% |
| Premium, 300,000 LIT | 0.021% | 300,000 LIT staked (25% off); maker 0.0030% |
| Premium, 500,000 LIT | 0.02% | 500,000 LIT staked (30% off); maker 0.0028% |
| Plus | 0.005% | opt-in; same rate maker and taker |
Perps: taker 0%, maker 0% — Standard (default) account. Premium/Advanced: 0.028% taker / 0.004% maker before LIT staking discounts. LIT Fee Credits can be bought to reach a higher staking tier without staking the full amount.
Platform fees only. On-chain network/priority fees, pool (LP) fees and price impact are extra and vary by trade.
Is Lighter legit?
Users connect their own wallet; the Terms describe the Protocol as autonomous software on an Ethereum Layer 2 and require users to own the wallet they connect.
Backers: Founders Fund, Ribbit Capital (leads); Haun Ventures, Robinhood ($68,000,000), 2025-11.
Incidents on record
- 2025-10-11: Multi-hour outage during the October 2025 liquidation cascade. Lighter went down for roughly four hours during the October 10-11 market crash. A Beosin analysis published by Odaily attributes it to sequencer and database overload, including database index corruption, and puts the LLP vault loss at about 5.35%. Source
- 2026-02-26: ARC position collapse and auto-deleveraging. A trader lost about $8.2M when a large ARC long collapsed. Around $2M was liquidated on the book, the rest passed to the LLP, and auto-deleveraging closed some profitable shorts. ForkLog reports the LLP loss at about $75,000. Source
The full "is Lighter legit?" check →
Where Lighter is available
| Region | Status |
|---|---|
| United States | Not available |
| United Kingdom | Not available |
| European Union | Unverified |
Terms of Service (last updated 2025-12-29) say the Services are not offered to persons located in, resident in or organized in the United States, Canada, the UK, China, North Korea, Russia, Ukraine, Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, Sudan, Belarus, Myanmar or Syria, or other comprehensively sanctioned territories. EU countries are not named. Status 'unknown' for unnamed regions means the Terms do not list them as restricted; the venue does not affirmatively confirm availability there. (source)
We report what the venue's own terms say. Don't use a VPN to get around restrictions; venues can freeze accounts that do.
Pros and cons
Pros
- The default Standard account charges 0% maker and 0% taker on perps and spot.
- Paid Premium accounts start at 0.028% taker / 0.004% maker and drop up to 30% with LIT staking.
- Runs as a ZK rollup on Ethereum, and the docs describe verifiable order matching and liquidations.
- Backed by a reported $68M round led by Founders Fund and Ribbit Capital in November 2025.
Cons
- 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.
- Referral codes cannot be added after sign-up, and all referral rebates are discretionary.
Features
perpsspotorder bookzero-fee standard accountRWA perpspre-IPO marketspublic poolsLLP vaultmulti-asset marginsub-accountsAPImobile app
Lighter code
DEXSHEETYou get: 10% discount on fees paid, rebated every Monday; first week of Premium/Advanced fees rebated.
Alternatives to Lighter
Paradex
Non-US traders who place orders manually through a web UI and want zero-fee perps plus options from one margin account.
0%Round trip
Ostium
Traders who want onchain leveraged exposure to stocks, forex, commodities and indices from a self-custodied wallet, outside the US.
0.06%Round trip
Aster
Non-US, non-UK traders who want zero maker fees on order-book perps, very high leverage modes, or privacy-shielded orders.
0.08%Round trip
Pacifica
Solana perp traders who want a published volume ladder, 50x leverage on majors and exposure to RWA and pre-IPO markets, and who are outside the United States.
0.08%Round trip
All Lighter alternatives compared →
Head to head
Where Lighter ranks
- #1 in Lowest-fee perp DEXesof 10
- #2 in Best perp DEXes for beginnersof 10
- #3 in Best perp DEXesof 10
- #10 in Best no-KYC crypto exchangesof 10
Explainers related to Lighter
- What are Hyperliquid builder codes? (the extra fee apps add to your trades)
- What are perpetual futures (perps)? A trader's explainer
- What is a perpetual futures funding rate? (and how it affects your position)
Lighter FAQ
Is Lighter legit?
Lighter is a live Ethereum ZK-rollup perps exchange run by Elliot Technologies, Inc., reported to have raised $68M from Founders Fund, Ribbit Capital and others in November 2025. It is non-custodial. It suffered a roughly four-hour outage during the October 2025 crash, and its LLP vault lost about 5.35%.
Is Lighter really zero fees?
Yes for the default Standard account, which pays 0% maker and 0% taker on perps and spot, with 300 ms taker latency. Opt-in Premium accounts pay 0.028% taker and 0.004% maker for 140 ms latency, and Plus accounts pay 0.5 bps both sides.
Can US or UK residents use Lighter?
No. Lighter's Terms of Service, last updated December 29, 2025, say the Services are not offered to persons located in or resident in the United States, Canada or the UK, along with China, Russia, Ukraine and several sanctioned countries.
What is LIT staking used for on Lighter?
Staking LIT lowers Premium/Advanced account fees by 2.5% at 1,000 LIT up to 30% at 500,000 LIT. Stake is combined across a main account and its sub-accounts. LIT Fee Credits can also be bought to reach a higher tier temporarily.
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
- Lighter on Google Play (linked from app.lighter.xyz) — checked 2026-10-16
- The Block: Lighter raises $68 million at a $1.5 billion valuation — checked 2026-10-16
- Odaily: A complete review of Lighter's 4-hour outage — checked 2026-10-16
- ForkLog: Major Trader Loses $8.2 Million on ARC Token Deal — checked 2026-10-16
- Blockworks: Lighter opens public mainnet — checked 2026-10-16