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Zero-fee perps · Proven on Ethereum · Updated October 2026

Lighter DEX: Zero-Fee Lighter Trading on Lighter xyz, Proven on Ethereum

Lighter DEX, better known as Lighter xyz, is the perpetual futures exchange where a standard account pays 0% maker and 0% taker fees on every market, every match is proven with zero-knowledge circuits, and your funds settle to Ethereum. Here is everything you need to make every Lighter trade count: what zero fees actually save you, how Lighter perpetuals, leverage and funding work, how LIT, airdrop points and the LLP vault pay you back, and how the Lighter perp DEX compares with Hyperliquid.

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Enter this code when you sign up (it is prefilled through our link) and Lighter rebates your first week of Premium fees on up to $10M of volume.

Maker / taker fee (standard)
0% / 0%
Max leverage
50x (BTC, ETH)
Active markets
219+
Settlement
Ethereum L1 via ZK rollup
Cumulative volume
$1.6T+
Native token
LIT (TGE Dec 30, 2025)

Snapshot as of October 2026. Live numbers on docs.lighter.xyz.

Why traders choose Lighter trading

What zero fees and ZK proofs mean for your Lighter trading

Lighter DEX is built so that the exchange's advantages land in your account: lower cost per trade, fills you can audit, custody you never give up, and rewards for the activity you were going to do anyway.

  • Keep every dollar you trade

    0% maker and 0% taker on a standard account, on all 219+ markets, with no volume tier to unlock. A $10,000 round trip that costs about $9 on Hyperliquid costs you nothing here.

    Lighter DEX fees →

  • Fills you can verify, not just trust

    Every match and liquidation runs inside ZK circuits and is proven to Ethereum. If you were filled, the proof shows it followed price-time priority. No exchange can quietly front-run you.

    Lighter DEX security →

  • Your funds stay yours

    Non-custodial by design. Deposit USDC from your own wallet, and if Lighter's servers ever stop, an escape hatch lets you withdraw directly from Ethereum L1.

    Lighter DEX deposit →

  • One account, every market

    Crypto at up to 50x, US stocks like NVDA and TSLA, forex, gold and oil, and pre-IPO perps on OpenAI, SpaceX and Anthropic, all tradable 24/7 from one USDC balance.

    Lighter DEX stocks →

  • Start in ten minutes, no KYC

    Connect a wallet, sign one message, deposit. No email, no password, no documents. The mobile app gives you the same zero-fee markets on iOS and Android.

    Lighter DEX tutorial →

  • Get paid for being here

    Points Season 2 pays out every Friday, LIT staking earns a fixed 6% APR plus fee discounts, and the LLP vault shares the exchange's spread and liquidation income with depositors.

    Lighter DEX airdrop →

What is Lighter DEX?

Lighter DEX is a decentralized exchange for perpetual futures, or perps: derivative contracts that track an asset's price with no expiry and let you go long or short with leverage. People search for it as Lighter xyz, Lighter perp or Lighter perps; the app lives at app.lighter.xyz and the marketing site at lighter.xyz. Lighter was founded in 2022 by Vladimir Novakovski, a former Citadel quant, opened a private beta in January 2025 and launched its public mainnet on October 2, 2025. It raised $68 million at a roughly $1.5 billion valuation in November 2025 from Founders Fund, Ribbit Capital, a16z, Robinhood Ventures, Dragonfly, Haun Ventures and Lightspeed.

Three things change for you when you move a perp position from a typical DEX or centralized exchange to Lighter:

  • You stop paying to trade. 0% maker and 0% taker on every market, funded by premium accounts, LIT staking, the LLP vault and liquidation fees rather than by charging you per fill. Lighter DEX fees explained →
  • You can prove you were treated fairly. The order book runs on zkLighter, an app-specific ZK rollup. Custom Plonky2 circuits prove that orders were matched by price-time priority and that liquidations followed the published rules, then post the proof to Ethereum. Is Lighter DEX safe? →
  • You trade everything from one balance. 219+ active markets: crypto majors at up to 50x, altcoins, forex, gold and oil, US stocks such as NVDA and TSLA, and pre-IPO perps on OpenAI, SpaceX and Anthropic, 24/7 and without a brokerage account. Lighter DEX leverage and order types →

The exchange has its own token, the Lighter DEX token LIT, launched on December 30, 2025, and an ongoing Lighter DEX airdrop points program that fed the first distribution. A Robinhood Wallet integration went live in July 2026 and now routes a meaningful share of daily volume through a Lighter deployment on Robinhood Chain. Full background: what is Lighter DEX and the Lighter DEX launch date and history.

Your first Lighter trade in four steps

Lighter perpetuals trade like perps on any order-book exchange: deposit collateral, choose leverage, go long or short. The difference you feel immediately is that nothing is deducted per trade, and every fill you get is provably fair.

  1. Step 1

    Connect a wallet

    MetaMask, Rabby, Coinbase Wallet or any WalletConnect wallet. No email, no KYC, no waiting: sign one message and your Lighter account keys exist.

  2. Step 2

    Deposit collateral

    USDC is the base collateral and you can send it from Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Solana, Avalanche or HyperEVM, so you start from wherever your funds already sit. ETH and XAUT also count as margin at a 70% haircut.

  3. Step 3

    Place the order

    Pick a market, choose cross or isolated margin, set leverage, then send a market, limit, stop, take-profit or TWAP order. On a standard account the fee line reads 0%.

  4. Step 4

    Manage and withdraw

    Funding settles hourly so costs never pile up unseen. Close any time and withdraw to Ethereum L1; the rollup proof guarantees your balance even if Lighter's servers vanish.

Read the full Lighter DEX tutorial or the Lighter DEX deposit and withdrawal guide.

Lighter trading vs other perp DEXs

The difference you notice first is cost. On a $10,000 taker round trip, Hyperliquid charges about $9 before discounts; Lighter perps cost you nothing on a standard account. The difference that matters over time is that Lighter is the only one of the three whose fills you can verify.

FeatureLighterHyperliquidAster
Standard maker / taker0% / 0%0.015% / 0.045%0.01% / 0.035%
InfrastructureZK rollup on EthereumOwn L1 (HyperCore)BNB Chain + multichain
Verifiable matchingYes, ZK proofsNo, validator consensusNo
Max leverage50x40x1001x (select pairs)
Markets219+ (crypto, stocks, FX, pre-IPO)170+ perps, 300+ spot100+
TokenLITHYPEASTER
KYCNoneNoneNone

Lighter DEX vs Hyperliquid: the full comparison

Get more out of Lighter DEX

Lighter DEX: frequently asked questions

What is Lighter DEX?

Lighter DEX is a decentralized exchange for perpetual futures at lighter.xyz. It runs its own zero-knowledge rollup (zkLighter) on Ethereum, proves every order match and liquidation with ZK circuits, and charges standard accounts 0% maker and 0% taker fees. Searches for Lighter xyz, Lighter perp, Lighter perps and Lighter perp DEX all mean this exchange.

What does Lighter trading cost?

A Lighter trade on a standard account costs 0% in maker and taker fees. What you pay instead is funding (hourly, usually small), the spread, and Ethereum gas when you deposit or withdraw. Premium accounts that want the fastest matching pay 0.0040% maker and 0.0280% taker, reduced by staking LIT.

Are Lighter perps really zero fee?

Yes. A standard account pays 0% maker and 0% taker on every perpetual market, with no volume tier to reach and no expiry. Premium accounts that want faster matching pay 0.0040% maker and 0.0280% taker, discounted by staking LIT. What you still pay is funding, spread and Ethereum gas on deposits and withdrawals, and each of those can be kept small.

What chain is the Lighter perp DEX on?

Lighter runs on zkLighter, an application-specific ZK rollup built by the Lighter team that settles to Ethereum mainnet, so your balance is backed by Ethereum security even though trades match in milliseconds. A second deployment runs on Robinhood Chain (an Arbitrum-based L2) using USDG as collateral.

Does Lighter DEX have a token?

Yes. The LIT token launched on December 30, 2025 with a fixed supply of 1 billion and no inflation. Holding and staking LIT pays you back three ways: premium fee discounts, access to LLP vault yield (1 LIT staked unlocks 10 USDC of capacity) and a fixed 6% APR. 25% of supply went to points Season 1 and Season 2 participants.

Is there a Lighter DEX airdrop in 2026?

The first LIT airdrop landed at TGE. The points program (Season 2) is still live with distributions every Friday, so trading today keeps earning. Lighter has reserved 25% of supply for future ecosystem rewards, but no second airdrop date or conversion rate has been announced.

Is Lighter DEX safe and legit?

Lighter is venture-backed (Founders Fund, Ribbit, a16z, Robinhood Ventures) with audited smart contracts and a ZK-verified matching engine. It is non-custodial: your funds stay in your control, and an escape hatch lets you withdraw from Ethereum L1 even if the sequencer goes offline. It remains a leveraged venue with sequencer, contract and market risk, so size positions accordingly.

How are Lighter perpetuals different from Hyperliquid?

Hyperliquid runs its own L1 with deeper liquidity and charges 0.015% maker / 0.045% taker. Lighter perpetuals trade on a ZK rollup on Ethereum with 0% fees for standard accounts and cryptographically verifiable matching, so you save on every round trip and can verify you were filled fairly. See the full Lighter DEX vs Hyperliquid comparison.

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