Venues / Lighter

8 Lighter alternatives

Why look beyond Lighter

• 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.

The alternatives

1. Paradex

   Paradex · 0% round trip

   Non-US traders who place orders manually through a web UI and want zero-fee perps plus options from one margin account.

   + Retail orders pay 0% maker and 0% taker on perps, spot and options.

   Open Paradex

2. Ostium

   Arbitrum · 0.06% round trip

   Traders who want onchain leveraged exposure to stocks, forex, commodities and indices from a self-custodied wallet, outside the US.

   + Covers 75 pairs across stocks, ETFs, commodities, indices, forex and crypto, which most crypto perp venues do not list.

   Open Ostium

3. Aster

   Aster Chain · BNB Chain · Arbitrum · 0.08% round trip

   Non-US, non-UK traders who want zero maker fees on order-book perps, very high leverage modes, or privacy-shielded orders.

   + Maker fees are 0% at every VIP tier on order-book perps since February 2026.

   Open Aster · Lighter vs Aster

4. Pacifica

   Solana · 0.08% round trip

   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.

   + Fee schedule is published with eight tiers and a 0% maker fee at the VIP tiers.

   Open Pacifica

5. Hyperliquid

   Hyperliquid · 0.09% round trip

   Perps traders outside the US who want onchain order-book trading from their own wallet, with fees that drop by volume and HYPE staking.

   + Base perps fees are 0.045% taker / 0.015% maker, falling to 0.024% / 0% at the top volume tier.

   Open Hyperliquid — 4% off fees · Lighter vs Hyperliquid

6. Avantis

   Base · 0.09% round trip

   Traders who want crypto, forex, commodities and US or Korean equity exposure from one USDC balance on Base.

   + Zero maker and taker commission on real-world asset markets while in growth mode.

   Open Avantis

7. edgeX

   Ethereum · 0.09% round trip

   Non-US, non-Canadian perps traders who want an Ethereum-settled order book with stock and forex perps and an email login option.

   + Settles to Ethereum, with V1 built on the StarkEx ZK-rollup engine and V2 anchoring state roots to Ethereum L1.

   Open edgeX

8. ApeX Omni

   Zklink · 0.1% round trip

   Traders who want a large perp listing with TradFi and stock perps and a staking-based fee discount, and who are outside the United States.

   + Fee ladder is published with seven levels, and staking APEX can unlock Levels 1 to 4 without volume.

   Open ApeX Omni

Cost compared