Lighter vs Backpack Exchange
Same lines, side by side: fees, leverage, markets, KYC, custody and referral perks, from official pages and DefiLlama.
| Line | Lighter | Backpack Exchange |
|---|---|---|
| 30-day volume | #P03 · $52,570.0MEdge | #P13 · Not tracked |
| Trading fees | 0% maker · 0% takerStandard accounts, the default, pay no maker or taker fee on perps or spot, at the cost of slower matching (300ms taker latency). Premium accounts are opt-in and get faster matching: 0.0040% maker and 0.0280% taker with no LIT staked, reduced by staking LIT. | Tier table published as an imageBackpack documents one tier table covering spot and perpetual futures, sorted by 30-day volume, with tiers recalculated every hour and the effective tier driven by whichever is highest between BP staking, volume and pre-TGE Mad Lad NFT holdings. The table itself is published as a screenshot on guide.backpack.exchange, so the numbers cannot be read in text; the USDT/USDC pair is charged 0% and does not count toward tiers. |
| New-user perk | One week of Premium for free: the fees paid during that week are rebated | Fee rebates on referred accounts |
| Max leverage | up to 50× | up to 75×Edge |
| Perp markets | 210Edge | 103 |
| Identity check | No KYCEdge | KYC required |
| Custody | Non-custodial: Ethereum contracts hold the state root, escape hatch available | Custodial: your balances sit on the exchange, wallet is a separate product |
| Settles on | Lighter Core (ZK rollup anchored on Ethereum) | Backpack Exchange (centralised matching) |
| Collateral | USDC | USDC, USDT |
| Where it runs | Web | Web, iOS, Android |
| Chains | EVMEthereum | Solana · EVM · Bitcoin · SuiSolana, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Polygon, Avalanche, Bitcoin, SuiEdge |
| Documented features | 7 of 10 | 7 of 10 |
| Order book | Yes | Yes |
| Cross margin | Yes | Yes |
| Spot trading | Yes | Yes |
| Vaults / copy vaults | Yes | Not documented |
| Copy trading | Not documented | Not documented |
| Stocks, gold or forex | Yes | Yes |
| Points program | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | Not documented | Yes |
| Telegram bot | No | Not documented |
Which one should you pick?
Pick Lighter if
Fees are your main cost and you accept slightly slower fills to keep them at zero.
Trading is free by default on Lighter, and the venue anchors its state root on Ethereum with a documented escape hatch. The catch is that free matching is slower, and the paid Premium tier exists above it.
app.lighter.xyz
Pick Backpack Exchange if
You want a CEX-style experience with unified portfolio margin, stocks next to perps, and a referral that pays in cash.
The only centralised venue of the series, and the only one where you give up custody: accounts are KYC-verified, balances sit on the exchange and the 10% referral rebate is paid on trading fees rather than points. Backpack also lists US stocks and ETFs next to 103 perpetual markets.
backpack.exchange
