Original research by 10102, as of 2026-06-11 (source confidence 60%). Research notes decay: figures and reads age fast, re-verify before acting on them. Nothing here is financial advice.
TL;DR
Lighter (LIT): perp DEX as application-specific zk-rollup L2 on Ethereum; free retail trading, verifiable matching.
Structure
- What it is: perp DEX as application-specific zk-rollup L2 on Ethereum; free retail trading, verifiable matching
- TGE: 2025-12
- Max supply: 1,000,000,000
- Circulating supply (approx): 250,000,000
- Market cap (approx): $362,000,000
- FDV (approx): $1,450,000,000
- Annualized revenue: $26,500,000
- Revenue model: NOT trading fees: LLP earnings + liquidations + treasury yield (Circle deal on ~$920M USDC); rate-sensitive, lower ceiling
- Unlocks: team (26%) + investors (24%) behind 1yr cliff opening late Dec 2026, then ~13.5M LIT/mo permanent
- Volume trend: post-Season-2: 39B/mo (Jun 2026), -83%: volume was largely mercenary
Outlook (as of 2026-06-11)
Cheaper than Hyperliquid on multiples (roughly 14x market cap to revenue versus 19x) but with worse revenue quality: earnings come from LLP returns, liquidations and treasury yield rather than trading fees, which makes them rate-sensitive. Volume fell about 83% after Season 2 incentives ended, and the December 2026 team and investor cliff is the dominant supply event ahead. Things to watch: a Season 3 announcement and evidence of post-incentive volume stickiness.
Sources
- https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/lighter
- https://defillama.com/protocol/lighter
- https://tokenomist.ai/lighter
- https://www.datawallet.com/crypto/lighter-explained
- https://www.21shares.com/en-eu/insights/the-perpetual-dex-wars-hyperliquid-aster-and-lighter-in-focus