Lighter review
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.
Sign up through this link: A 10% discount on the fees you pay, rebated every Monday.
Affiliate link
Perpetual futures are leveraged: a small move against you can liquidate your position. Only trade what you can afford to lose.
- Trading fees
- 0% 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.
- New-user perk
- A 10% discount on the fees you pay, rebated every Mondaywith our link
- 30-day volume
- $52,570.0MDefiLlama protocol page, 28/09/2026. Reported 24h volume ($1.21B) is about 48% above the normalized figure ($821M), so a meaningful share of activity is not counted as organic.
- Max leverage
- up to 50×210 perp markets
- Identity check (KYC)
- No KYC
- Custody
- Non-custodial: Ethereum contracts hold the state root, escape hatch available
- Settles on
- Lighter Core (ZK rollup anchored on Ethereum) · USDC
- Where it runs
Checked 22 Oct 20268 sources
Who it’s for
Pick it if
Fees are your main cost and you accept slightly slower fills to keep them at zero.
Skip it if
You need the fastest possible fills.
Strengths / Limits
Strengths
- $52.6B of perp volume over 30 days with no maker or taker fee on regular orders from the default account.
- Proofs and state are posted to Ethereum, and a priority queue on Ethereum guarantees exits even if the sequencer stops.
- 210 active perp markets, including RWA and pre-IPO markets, counted on the public order book API.
- Referral kickbacks of 10% or 20% of gross fees, and 10% off fees, rebated weekly, for the referee.
Limits
- The 0% fee covers regular orders on the default account, which trades at 300ms taker latency; TWAP/advanced orders and RFQ pay 1 bp, and fast matching is a paid tier.
- Reported volume is about 48% above normalized volume, so the headline figure overstates organic activity.
- Unified trading accounts can only be enabled on the web for now.
What it offers
- Order bookYes
- Cross marginYes
- Spot tradingYes
- Vaults / copy vaultsYes
- Copy tradingNot documented
- Stocks, gold or forexYes
- Points programYes
- APIYes
- Mobile appYes
- Telegram botNo
“Not documented” means we found no official page, not that the feature is missing.
How to start safely
- Open the official app
Type app.lighter.xyz yourself or use a bookmark: phishing copies of perp exchanges are common.
- Deposit a small amount first
Send a test deposit of the collateral the exchange accepts, on the chain it documents, before moving more.
- Set leverage and a stop before the order
Pick isolated margin for a new trade, keep leverage low, and place the stop-loss with the order, not after.
- Watch funding and liquidation price
Funding is paid regularly while a position is open, and the liquidation price moves closer as leverage rises.
Security record
No incident found in our sources. That is not a guarantee.
Official domains: lighter.xyz
Card history
Every change to the figures on this card, dated the day it went live. Rewording is left out.
New-user perk updated
Added to DegenBench
A figure is wrong or out of date? Send it with the official source: once checked, the fix shows up here, dated.Report an error
Sources
Checked on 22 Oct 2026. Facts change quickly: re-check prices and fees in the app.
Lighter0% maker · 0% taker · Affiliate link
Open