Lighter vs Backpack Exchange
Same lines, side by side: fees, leverage, markets, KYC, custody and referral perks, from official pages and DefiLlama.
See the 12 differences
| Line | Lighter | Backpack Exchange |
|---|---|---|
| 30-day volume | Edge#03 · $52,570.0M | #13 · Not tracked |
| Trading fees | Edge0% maker · 0% takerStandard accounts, the default, pay no maker or taker fee on regular perp and spot orders, at the cost of slower matching (300ms taker latency), but 1 bp (0.01%) on TWAP/advanced orders and RFQ. Premium/Advanced accounts are opt-in and get faster matching: 0.0040% maker and 0.0280% taker with no LIT staked, reduced by staking LIT. | 0.05% taker · 0.02% makerBackpack 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 base tier is 0.02% maker and 0.05% taker on futures, higher tiers are cheaper according to the published table, which the support site now gives as text; the USDT/USDC pair is charged 0% and does not count toward tiers. |
| New-user perk | A 10% discount on the fees you pay, rebated every Monday | Fee rebates on referred accounts |
| Max leverage | up to 50× | Edgeup to 75× |
| Perp markets | Edge210 | 103 |
| Identity check (KYC) | EdgeNo KYC | 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 | EdgeSolana · EVM · Bitcoin · SuiSolana, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Polygon, Avalanche, Bitcoin, Sui |
| Documented features | 8 of 10 | 8 of 10 |
| Order book | Yes | Yes |
| Cross margin | Yes | Yes |
| Spot trading | Yes | Yes |
| Vaults / copy vaults | Yes | Yes |
| Copy trading | Not documented | Not documented |
| Stocks, gold or forex | Yes | Yes |
| Points program | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | Yes | 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.
Regular orders are 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.
Read the Lighter reviewSign up through this link: A 10% discount on the fees you pay, rebated every Monday.
Affiliate link
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.
One of the two centralised venues of the series, with Bybit, so 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.
Read the Backpack Exchange reviewbackpack.exchange
