Ethereum DEX Lighter monthly trading volume reaches 290 billion, spot market launch coming soon

The Ethereum-based decentralized crypto exchange Lighter is about to launch spot trading. The platform will first open ETH transfer services on Thursday and plans to expand to more markets in the coming days. In November, Lighter’s trading volume reached $292.5 billion, making it the most active crypto trading protocol that month, surpassing Hyperliquid’s $308.5 billion.

Monthly Trading Volume of $292.5 Billion Surpasses Hyperliquid, Ranks in Top Three

(Source: The Block)

Lighter launched its private testnet in January and its public mainnet in October, quickly becoming one of the largest on-chain crypto exchanges and one of the few real competitors to Hyperliquid. The company’s trading volume in October was $272.5 billion, compared to Hyperliquid and Aster’s $308.5 billion and $259 billion, respectively. According to The Block, Lighter’s November trading volume hit $292.5 billion, making it the most active crypto trading protocol at that time.

Such growth speed is extremely rare in the history of decentralized exchanges. Lighter took less than a year to go from private testing in January to becoming the monthly trading volume leader in November. In contrast, Uniswap took more than two years to establish its dominance, and dYdX also went through a long cold start. Lighter’s rapid rise is partly due to market timing—the boom in crypto derivatives trading demand in 2025—plus technical advantages and the team’s background.

Competition with Hyperliquid is the most compelling part of the Lighter story. Launched in 2023, Hyperliquid proved that on-chain perpetual DEXs could achieve sustainable growth, especially after its native token HYPE and HyperEVM launched in November 2024. However, Lighter caught up with and even surpassed Hyperliquid’s monthly trading volume within just a few months. This latecomer advantage has injected new competitive energy into the entire DEX space.

Top 3 On-Chain DEX Trading Volumes in November 2025

Lighter: $292.5 billion (Ethereum zk-rollup)

Hyperliquid: $308.5 billion (independent L1, data may include other months)

Aster: $259 billion (Binance Incubated)

It’s worth noting that even though Hyperliquid’s monthly perpetual trading volume is only about one-tenth that of Binance, this is already an incredible achievement for a decentralized exchange. As the world’s largest centralized exchange, Binance’s monthly trading volume is typically above $3 trillion. Lighter and Hyperliquid reaching hundreds of billions demonstrates that the user experience and performance of on-chain trading are approaching those of centralized exchanges.

Technical Choices of a Former Citadel Quant

Lighter’s decentralized exchange is built on Ethereum using application-specific zero-knowledge rollup (zk-rollup) technology. Founder Vladimir Novakovski is a former Citadel quantitative analyst and an Olympic medalist. He has publicly stated that, due to Ethereum’s security guarantees, he prefers building a DEX-focused Layer-2 rather than a dedicated Layer-1 like Hyperliquid.

This technical path reflects Novakovski’s risk assessment logic. As the second largest blockchain by market cap, Ethereum’s security has been proven over many years, with thousands of validator nodes and a vast developer community. A Layer-2 built on Ethereum inherits this security while achieving high throughput and low transaction costs through zk-rollup technology. In contrast, an independent Layer-1 must build validator networks and security foundations from scratch, posing higher technical and attack risks in early stages.

Novakovski’s Citadel background brings not only personal prestige to Lighter but also real technical advantages. Citadel is one of the world’s largest market makers and hedge funds, renowned for its ultra-low-latency, high-frequency trading systems. Novakovski’s experience in order matching algorithms, risk management models, and system architecture at Citadel is directly applied to Lighter’s design, making Lighter clearly superior to many competitors in trade execution speed, order book depth, and slippage control.

Though being an Olympic medalist may seem unrelated to blockchain technology, it actually demonstrates Novakovski’s extreme competitiveness and goal-driven personality. Winning medals at the Olympic level requires years of rigorous training, precise execution, and the ability to remain calm under pressure. These qualities are equally important in entrepreneurship and tech development, especially in the highly competitive DEX market.

Full Product Line: Stocks, Futures, Forex, Spot

Lighter’s latest move into spot market trading is part of a series of recent developments. In the past few weeks, the project has launched stock futures trading, with the first products being $COIN and $HOOD; it has also expanded into forex trading and, through integration with Chainlink, successfully entered the real-world asset space.

Stock futures trading is a bold innovation by Lighter. $COIN (Coinbase) and $HOOD (Robinhood) are US-listed crypto-related stocks, and Lighter offers perpetual contracts on these stocks, allowing users to long or short them 24/7 without waiting for the US stock market to open. This product fills the gap left by traditional stock market hours and is particularly attractive to global investors.

The expansion into forex trading shows that Lighter’s ambitions go beyond crypto. The traditional forex market is the world’s largest financial market, with daily volumes exceeding $7 trillion. Lighter offers perpetual contracts on major currency pairs like EUR/USD, GBP/USD, etc., enabling crypto users to trade forex and crypto on the same platform without switching between multiple platforms.

Integration with Chainlink is key to entering real-world assets. Chainlink is the largest decentralized oracle network, providing reliable external data for blockchains. Through Chainlink, Lighter can access real-time data for stock prices, exchange rates, commodity prices, and more from traditional financial markets, ensuring accurate pricing and reliable settlement for its derivative contracts.

Lighter Product Line Overview

Crypto Perpetual Contracts: Main business, monthly volume close to $300 billion

Stock Futures: COIN, HOOD already listed, plans to expand to more US stocks

Forex Trading: Perpetual contracts on major currency pairs

Spot Trading: ETH first to go live, more tokens to be launched soon

This full product line layout transforms Lighter from a pure crypto DEX into a “decentralized all-asset trading platform.” This is an ambitious vision; if successfully realized, Lighter will become a one-stop platform for users to trade stocks, forex, commodities, and cryptocurrencies, completely breaking down the segmentation of traditional financial markets.

Derivatives Dominate but Spot is Essential

As in traditional markets, the crypto spot market accounts for only a small portion of overall trading activity, with derivatives trading usually dominating. According to The Block Research, driven by historic liquidation events and the rise of platforms like Lighter and Binance-incubated Aster, on-chain perpetual contract trading volumes reached a record $1.2 trillion in October.

While derivatives trading volume far exceeds spot, the spot market remains an indispensable part of the DEX ecosystem. First, spot markets provide price discovery, as derivative contract pricing is ultimately anchored to spot prices. Second, spot trading meets actual token transfer needs, as many users need to buy tokens for DeFi, NFT, or other on-chain activities. Third, combined spot and derivative trading strategies (such as spot arbitrage and basis trading) require both spot and derivatives to be traded on the same platform.

The team showcased the spot trading feature for the first time in late November, soliciting feedback from testnet users. This community-driven product development approach is common in DeFi, ensuring that the final product meets real user needs rather than being built behind closed doors. Testnet user feedback may address interface design, order types, fee structures, and more, helping Lighter refine its product details.

While it’s not uncommon for exchanges to offer both spot and derivative services—Coinbase and Kraken are both planning to expand their derivatives business this year—Lighter is unique in that it started with derivatives, built a leading trading engine and liquidity, and is now vertically integrating into spot. This “from hard to easy” development path is the opposite of most DEXs, which go “from spot to derivatives.”

Founders Fund Leads $68M Round at $1.5B Valuation

In November, Founders Fund and Ribbit Capital led Lighter’s $68 million funding round, valuing the company at $1.5 billion. Founders Fund, founded by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, is known for its aggressive investment style and bets on disruptive technologies. Its portfolio includes tech giants like SpaceX, Palantir, and Stripe. Founders Fund’s choice to lead Lighter’s round shows its belief that decentralized exchanges have the potential to disrupt traditional financial infrastructure.

Ribbit Capital is one of the most active fintech investors, having backed stars like Robinhood, Coinbase, and Credit Karma. Its deep fintech expertise and extensive network provide Lighter not only with capital but also with strategic guidance and regulatory relationships. When Lighter faces regulatory challenges or needs to collaborate with traditional financial institutions in the future, Ribbit’s resources will be key.

A $1.5 billion valuation makes Lighter one of the highest-valued projects in the DEX space. What assumptions is this valuation based on? Investors may believe that Lighter’s full product line, Ethereum-based technology, and founder background give it the potential to become the decentralized version of Interactive Brokers or TD Ameritrade—a comprehensive platform for stocks, forex, commodities, and crypto trading. If this vision is realized, a $1.5 billion valuation will seem extremely conservative.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is Lighter?

Lighter is a decentralized exchange based on Ethereum zk-rollup technology, offering crypto perpetual contracts, stock futures, forex, and spot trading. Founded by former Citadel quant Vladimir Novakovski, it posted $292.5 billion in November trading volume and is valued at $1.5 billion.

How is Lighter different from Hyperliquid?

Technical Architecture: Lighter is built on Ethereum Layer-2, Hyperliquid is an independent Layer-1. Security: Lighter inherits Ethereum’s security, Hyperliquid must build its own validator network. Product Line: Lighter offers stock and forex futures, while Hyperliquid focuses on crypto derivatives.

Why choose Ethereum instead of an independent chain?

Founder Novakovski believes Ethereum’s security guarantees are more reliable. Ethereum has thousands of validator nodes and a vast developer community. Layer-2 inherits this security while achieving high performance and low cost through zk-rollup.

When will spot trading be fully open?

ETH spot trading went live on Thursday, and more tokens will be launched in the coming days. The specific timetable has not been announced, but according to the team, major tokens with the highest trading volume, such as BTC, SOL, and XRP, will be prioritized.

How does Lighter make money?

By charging trading fees (perpetual contract maker fees are usually negative or zero, taker fees about 0.02%-0.05%), spot trading fees, and possible token issuance. Compared to centralized exchanges’ rates above 0.1%, Lighter’s cost advantage is significant.