The decentralized order book exchange has achieved remarkable early traction, with total value locked (TVL) surpassing $1.1 billion and an 83.6% increase over the past week, positioning it as a highly anticipated perpetual DEX alongside Hyperliquid and Aster.
Spot Trading: The Game-Changing Addition
Timeline and Initial Offerings
A key announcement focused on spot trading, anticipated for late October or early November 2025. However, as Novakovski clarified in an August AMA, “Spot trading is a critical prerequisite for the native token launch,” requiring substantial adjustments to the core zero-knowledge (ZK) circuit infrastructure that may extend development by several months into mid-2026.
Initially, spot trading will focus on ETH and BTC, potentially including Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC). The decision to prioritize these assets reflects their established market liquidity and widespread adoption, providing a solid foundation for initial trading volume.
Zero-Fee Strategy for Retail Traders
Lighter commits to maintaining a zero-fee policy for individual investors even after official launch, mirroring the precedent set by Robinhood. This applies to all individual traders directly using the Lighter platform.
However, institutional participants such as high-frequency trading (HFT) firms and professional market makers (MMs) will be subject to fees under a separate “premium tier” structure, with maker fees of 0.2 basis points (bps) for limit orders and slightly higher taker fees. Currently, 20 market-making teams are active on the platform, with several hundred more on the waiting list.
Comprehensive Feature Roadmap
Q4 2025: Security and Risk Management
Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) for withdrawals is on the development roadmap, allowing users to add an extra layer of protection through authenticator apps like Google Authenticator or Authy, and SMS-based verification.
Cross-Margin Functionality is slated for release before year-end. This feature will allow users to leverage their spot holdings as collateral for perpetual contracts, enhancing capital efficiency. Unlike isolated margin, cross-margin utilizes the entire account balance to prevent liquidation, providing more robust risk management.
Real World Asset (RWA) Derivatives represent Lighter’s move into bridging traditional finance and DeFi. These derivatives allow users to trade synthetic versions of real-world assets like stocks, commodities, or real estate on the blockchain.
Early 2026: Smart Contract Evolution
EVM “Sidecar” and Smart Contract Extensions will enable developers to deploy and run Ethereum-compatible smart contracts on Lighter’s platform, unlocking new functionalities and integrations. This demonstrates Lighter’s commitment to fostering innovation and supporting decentralized application (dApp) development.
Collateralization Expansion: Once spot trading is integrated, the platform will enable collateralization of ETH and other ERC-20 tokens, supporting related financial products like lending protocols and innovative derivatives such as zero-day options.
Mid-2026 and Beyond
Options Trading is scheduled for next year, providing traders with sophisticated risk management and speculative tools. Options contracts give holders the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell assets at predetermined prices within specified timeframes.
Dark Pool Trading is planned for later in 2026. Dark pools are private exchanges allowing institutional investors to execute large orders without revealing intentions to the broader market, minimizing price impact and slippage.
Token Economics and Community Focus
Generous Community Allocation
25%-30% of tokens will be allocated to airdrops in the first and second seasons, with a total community allocation of 50%. The remainder will fund future airdrops, partnerships, and projects, ensuring long-term sustainability.
Season 2 Points Program
Novakovski clarified that Season 2 points activity will end before year-end, not on December 31st as previously speculated. Season 2 began with the October 2 public launch and will continue until around the Token Generation Event (TGE), with funding resuming every Friday.
Unlike Season 1’s “black box” approach designed to prevent system abuse, Season 2 will feature clearer guidelines for earning points, with official rules to be published soon.
Token Utility and Governance
The token will feature:
- Buyback Mechanism: Reducing circulating supply to potentially increase value
- Multiple Use Cases: Creating demand and incentivizing holding within the Lighter ecosystem
- Governance Rights: Available approximately two years from launch, empowering token holders to shape platform direction
Technical Architecture: Ethereum-Native Composability
Custom ZK Circuits
Lighter’s main solution involves custom ZK circuits handling matching and clearing, ensuring every trade and settlement can be verified on-chain while maintaining decentralized trust and achieving high-speed execution.
Performance aims to deliver an experience close to high-frequency trading, with fees and delays much lower than traditional DEX platforms.
Ethereum Integration Strategy
“We don’t need to rebuild an ecosystem. Our ecosystem is Ethereum itself,” Novakovski emphasized. Unlike Hyperliquid’s closed L1 architecture, Lighter takes “Ethereum-native composability” as its core path, allowing LLP Tokens to circulate on the mainnet and collaborate with DeFi protocols like Aave.
This approach provides a low-cost, low-latency, verifiable execution environment within an open ecosystem, leveraging Ethereum’s security, decentralization, and established developer community.
Platform Security and Fair Trading
Anti-Fraud Measures
Lighter has implemented comprehensive measures to prevent fraudulent trading:
- Monitoring for wash trading and price manipulation
- Detection of illicit activities
- Potential fees for high-frequency traders to mitigate algorithmic trading impact on volatility
- Enhanced transparency through upgraded block explorer
Market Outlook and Risk Management
CEO’s Cautious Forecast
Novakovski predicts market volatility for 1-2 weeks and recommends strengthening risk management. He emphasizes traders should:
- Use stop-loss orders
- Manage position sizes carefully
- Avoid over-leveraging
- Protect capital during uncertainty periods
Competitive Positioning
With backing from prominent investors and a growing user base, Lighter competes directly with established players like Gemini, Blockchain.com, and CoinDCX, while differentiating through:
- Zero fees for retail traders
- Deep Ethereum ecosystem integration
- Verifiable on-chain execution
- Comprehensive feature roadmap
- Strong community focus (50% token allocation)
How to Participate
Getting Started with Lighter
- Visit the official platform at app.lighter.xyz/trade/
- Connect your wallet to complete account login
- Click “Public Liquidity Pool,” select LLP
- Deposit funds to start trading and earning Season 2 points
What to Expect
- No invitation code or deposit limit required (freely accessible)
- Invitation program still active with point incentives for referrals
- Clear point-earning rules coming soon
- Multi-language community AMAs (Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese)
Key Takeaways
- 70,000 users reached during 8-month private beta, from initial 100 traders
- $1.1 billion TVL achieved shortly after October 2 public launch
- Spot trading coming late 2025/early 2026 as prerequisite for TGE
- Zero fees for retail traders, 0.2 bps for institutional market makers
- 50% community allocation with 25-30% for Season 1 and 2 airdrops
- Q4 2025 TGE timeline remains unchanged despite feature additions
- Ethereum-native architecture for composability with existing DeFi protocols
The Road Ahead
Lighter’s ambitious roadmap positions it as a comprehensive trading platform bridging perpetual and spot markets while maintaining decentralization and Ethereum alignment. The zero-fee model for retail traders, combined with generous community token allocation, signals a user-first approach in the competitive DEX landscape.
As Novakovski emphasized, quoting Jeff Bezos: “There’s still much to accomplish, so we continue to operate with a ‘Day One’ mindset.” With spot trading integration, RWA derivatives, options, and dark pools all on the horizon, Lighter is building not just a trading platform, but a comprehensive decentralized financial infrastructure.
Stay tuned for Season 2 point-earning rules and get ready to participate in one of the most anticipated perpetual DEX launches of 2025-2026.
