Lighter, the Ethereum-based decentralized perpetuals exchange, is introducing spot trading following its breakout mainnet debut. The platform began with Ethereum transfers on Thursday and plans to expand into additional markets in the coming days.
Introduced in private beta in January with a public mainnet in October, Lighter has rapidly become one of the largest on-chain perps exchanges, representing one of the only true rivals to Hyperliquid. The firm saw $272.5 billion in trading volume in October, compared to Hyperliquid's $308.5 billion and Aster's $259 billion that month.
Moreover, it was the most active perps protocol by volume in November, with $292.5 billion recorded, according to The Block's data. Lighter's latest move into spot market trading is part of a wave of recent developments.
Recent Developments and Expansion
In the past several weeks, the project launched equities perp trading, starting with COIN and Robinhood, expanded its foreign exchange offerings, and made inroads into the real-world assets space with a Chainlink integration. The team first teased spot trading in late November, soliciting feedback from testnet users.
Market Context and Competitive Landscape
Like in traditional markets, crypto spot markets represent a fraction of overall trading activity, which is typically dominated by derivatives. Total on-chain perpetual trading volumes reached a record $1.2 trillion in October, propelled by a historic liquidation event and the rise of platforms like Lighter and the Binance-incubated Aster.
It is not uncommon, however, for exchanges to offer both services, with Coinbase and Kraken both looking to expand their derivatives businesses this year. Lighter's decentralized exchange is built as an application-specific zk-rollup on Ethereum.
Founding Vision and Growth Trajectory
Founder Vladimir Novakovski, a former Citadel quant and Olympiad medalist, has been outspoken about building a DEX-focused layer-2 rather than a dedicated layer-1 like Hyperliquid due to Ethereum's security guarantees. For its part, Hyperliquid launched in 2023 and proved that on-chain perps DEXs could garner sustainable growth.
Hyperliquid's success accelerated following the launch of its native token, HYPE, and the HyperEVM in November 2024. That said, Hyperliquid's monthly perps volumes are about a tenth the size of Binance's. In November, Founders Fund and Ribbit Capital led a $68 million Lighter funding round at a $1.5 billion valuation.