Lighter TVL Up 2000X In 6 Months: Is This Perp DEX The Missing Link In Ethereum?

Ben Graham · Outubro 9

Until recently, most developers viewed the Ethereum mainnet as this unscalable yet irresistibly attractive layer on which it was impossible to launch a functional perpetual DEX. Ethereum has everything. It is the second most valuable network after Bitcoin and the first smart contracts platform. After dYdX, there has been no other major perpetual DEX on Ethereum until Lighter took over from Q3 2025.

Lighter is moving numbers; big numbers taking on top centralized exchanges, and soon Binance. As of October 9, Lighter generated over $8.5Bn in trading volume in 24 hours. On this platform, traders are placing leveraged positions. Cumulatively, there is over $2.2Bn in open interest placed on 91 different pairs, some enabling the trading of some of the best cryptos to buy.

(Source: Coingecko)

As expected, over 50% of all trading volume is associated with Bitcoin, while 20% is from the ETH USDC pair. Although BNB crypto is the third most valuable crypto when writing, traders are placing more HYPE and SOL trades than BNB.

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What Makes Lighter DEX Super Attractive

If you are just any other retail trader, the first thing you will want to know is the fee paid when looking to clip gains, even from the top Solana meme coins.

On Binance, placing a market order means paying a total fee of 0.08%: 0.04% to open and another 0.04% to close. This charge is outrageously high.

Binance charges too much fees for Future Trading, you have to set limits for small investors. For example people who trade >$500 you may charge $1.5 maximum and for big investors<$500 you may fix charges accordingly. This is too much.
Buy Fees Sell Fees pic.twitter.com/lVnEtqVcgf

— Cryptozap (@CrazyCryptozap) August 21, 2025

When placing a BTC USDT position on the platform, assuming a modest 50X leverage, the trade will be at break-even only if the Bitcoin price ticks higher by at least $90. For scalpers, this is a huge impediment.

Lighter DEX changes this. Retail traders don’t have to pay a cent. It is free to place a market or a limit order. What’s more? Though Lighter DEX is fully non-custodial, critics might have complained about technical hitches and scaling concerns.

To resolve this and ensure transactions are always processed as fast as they would on Binance, Bybit, or Coinbase, Lighter processes tens of thousands of orders and cancellations every second with sub-millisecond latency.

The superior transaction processing throughput is thanks to Lighter’s use of zero-knowledge infrastructure, which handles thousands of operations efficiently without compromising decentralization.

Lighter batches all orders and settle them on the Ethereum mainnet, effectively staying true to Ethereum’s ecosystem while avoiding liquidity fragmentation.

Already, according to L2Beat, Lighter has a TVL of over $1.1Bn, roughly up 2000X from late March 2025.

(Source: L2Beat)

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Is Lighter The Missing Link in Ethereum?

Because of the rapid growth of Lighter and the DEX, which proves that it is possible to build a highly scalable and secure perpetual DEX reliant on the Ethereum mainnet for security, analysts are upbeat and now think the first smart contracts platform is complete.

In a post on X, the analyst said Lighter can be described as the first native perpetual DEX for Ethereum, the “birthplace of all DeFi primitives.” With Lighter pulling in billions in trading volume, the observer is convinced that the platform is the “final DeFi primitive” that will transform Ethereum into a “full-fledged financial platform” that will finally replace the global financial ecosystem.

Lighter is the missing link in Ethereum DeFi Eco

Ethereum is the engine of innovation in the DeFi space, having developed the largest DeFi primitives that everyone knows about today.

Other networks are simply copying these primitives.

But Ethereum has one clear problem: it… pic.twitter.com/PRWBmsyoiJ

— Eugene Bulltime (@Eugene_Bulltime) October 8, 2025

Lighter, he continued, is the exchange and the trading engine that will enable the building of a thriving ecosystem. Unlike Hyperliquid, which is also trending and popular but charges a fee, Lighter will build on an already developed ecosystem comprising protocols that already manage billions.

Another chimed in, saying Lighter is an improvement of Hyperliquid in that the DEX integrates Ethereum-grade property rights and is infinitely scalable thanks to the use of zero knowledge.

Impressive debut on L2Beat by @Lighter_xyz.

Lighter is a perps exchange – Hyperliquid with Ethereum grade property rights.

Already the 6th largest L2 by TVL and the #1 appchain L2 on Ethereum.

Advantages:
– No token issuance costs
– Ethereum grade security
– Infinitely… pic.twitter.com/yVXOjhhS1Y

— RYAN SΞAN ADAMS – rsa.eth (@RyanSAdams) October 8, 2025

The success of Lighter, the observer added, is “bullish for Ethereum appchains.”

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