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Project Overview
Lighter is a perpetual trading protocol that introduces a scalable, secure, transparent, non-custodial, and verifiable order book trading infrastructure within the Ethereum ecosystem. As an application-specific zk-rollup, it employs advanced cryptographic techniques and data structures. Lighter significantly improves the security and fairness of order book trading with its verifiable matching engine, ensuring scalable and efficient market price discovery. Thus, Lighter lays the groundwork for creating new, high-performance, and secure digital trading platforms.
Analyst: Variational's $1.5B FDV valuation is overly optimistic, conservative scenario could put it at just $167M
Odaily News: Blockworks analyst Shaunda Devens posted on X that Polymarket's current FDV valuation of approximately $1.5 billion for Variational is somewhat overly optimistic. This pricing directly applies Hyperliquid and Lighter-level valuation-to-revenue multiples to a platform that still relies on points subsidies. By comparison, the median first-day "FDV / annualized revenue" ratio for recently launched Perp DEX tokens is only 6.3x (Variational is currently around 57x), and within the first month after TGE, trading volume typically drops sharply by a median of 54%.Shaunda added that if conservative assumptions based on historical precedents are adopted (using the median first-day "FDV/annualized revenue" ratio of 6.3x), Variational's fair valuation would be only $167 million, corresponding to a points price of $4.8–$5.4. Even using the highest recent ratio precedent (Lighter's approximately 21.1x), its valuation would still only be about $558 million, corresponding to a points price of $16–$18.However, Shaunda also explained: "To be clear, given that current market risk appetite is clearly in a Risk-on state, we do not believe Variational's valuation at TGE will fall to the extremely conservative range mentioned above. These historical multiples are listed to illustrate that current pre-market OTC pricing may be overly optimistic."
Lighter Founder: All Economic Value of Lighter Will Flow to the Token, with the Equity Structure Converted to a Token Structure at TGE
Lighter founder Vladimir Novakovski published an article on X this morning titled "Equity and Tokens."In the article, Novakovski clarified that all economic value generated by Lighter will belong to token holders.Lighter's original intention has always been to use venture capital to bootstrap the project until the moment of token issuance. Lighter is a U.S. company and exists as a single entity — the entity that issued equity in the years leading up to TGE is the same entity that issued tokens at TGE. Apart from converting to a token cap table at TGE, the equity cap table will have no further function in the future.More specifically, Lighter completed its final equity financing round a few months before TGE, which was oversubscribed by approximately 5 times, attracting over $300 million in capital interest against a $68 million allocation. At that time, all equity stakeholders (including early investors and former employees) were informed of the future plan — that their equity value would only be reflected as holdings on the token cap table — and were given the opportunity to sell their equity stakes. Anyone who disagreed with the philosophy that "all value belongs to the token" could easily exit at a higher valuation. Ultimately, less than 1% of equity holders chose to sell their shares, while the rest chose to stay, thereby supporting Lighter's commitment to "value accruing to the token."
Fun Raises $72 Million in Series A Funding, Led by Multicoin Capital and SignalFire
According to Fortune, payments infrastructure startup Fun has announced a $72 million Series A funding round, co-led by Multicoin Capital and SignalFire, with participation from Infinity Ventures, Pharsalus Capital, and Justin Mateen, co-founder of Tinder. Fun primarily provides cryptocurrency and fiat deposit/withdrawal infrastructure for platforms such as Polymarket, Lighter, and Aave, processing over $18 billion in annual payments. The company plans to use the new funds to expand its team of approximately 30 people.
Lighter CEO Says DeFi Should Not Be Viewed as an Adversary to Regulators, AI May Drive Financial Democratization
Odaily News: At the inaugural meeting of the U.S. CFTC's Innovation Advisory Committee, Lighter CEO Vladimir Novakovski stated that DeFi has long been misunderstood and should not be viewed as an adversary to regulators. DeFi transactions are recorded on-chain in a verifiable manner, which helps regulators in areas such as transparency, consumer protection, and market fairness. Vladimir Novakovski noted that decentralized, verifiable finance has the potential to become an important part of the U.S. financial infrastructure in the future, particularly in terms of cybersecurity and operational resilience. He added that the industry should push for more technology to evolve toward open-source, verifiable tech stacks. He also stated that AI has the opportunity to drive financial democratization, allowing users to construct bundled trading or investment strategies through AI based on their own judgments about the macroeconomy, industries, and other fields—capabilities that were previously mainly available to high-net-worth individuals and professional fund managers.Vladimir Novakovski pointed out that the main risk AI faces in the financial sector is consumer protection risk—for example, users not understanding how AI models actually function, or models being promoted with misleading claims. Therefore, before AI models are deployed at scale for consumers, it is necessary to establish appropriate sandbox mechanisms and verify the validity and formal verifiability of the models.
Lighter Founder Appointed to CFTC Innovation Advisory Committee
Odaily Odaily: Lighter founder and CEO Vladimir Novakovski posted on X: "As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, I am proud to have been building Lighter here from the very beginning. This year, I have also started doing my small part — serving as a member of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Innovation Advisory Committee."Odaily Note: The Innovation Advisory Committee was established to advise the CFTC on complex issues at the intersection of technology, law, policy, and finance.
Robinhood Chain Mainnet Launches, Simultaneously Introducing Tokenized Stocks, Perpetual Contracts, and AI Agent Trading
Robinhood has announced the official launch of the public mainnet for its proprietary Layer 2 network, Robinhood Chain. Built on the Arbitrum technology stack, the chain is positioned as an institution-grade, permissionless, AI-native network specifically designed for Real World Assets (RWA).Robinhood Chain's launch partners include Uniswap, Pleiades, Alchemy, BitGo, and Chainlink. Among them, Uniswap will deploy a dedicated AMM on the chain as the primary public liquidity protocol, while Pleiades will deploy its own AMM as the primary proprietary trading venue. The chain will also offer basic DeFi functionalities such as lending.Eligible users can trade tokenized stocks 24/7 on Robinhood Chain. Simultaneously, Robinhood Earn will introduce USDG-based decentralized lending products within the main app. In certain jurisdictions, the new version of Robinhood Wallet will also support access to Lighter's perpetual contract trading.Robinhood also announced the expansion of its European perpetual contract product range, its official entry into the Canadian market, and the acquisition of a Singapore Capital Markets Services license. Furthermore, Agentic Accounts for crypto trading are planned to begin rolling out in the US soon, allowing AI agents to participate in trading and fund management.Robinhood stated that this update represents its most ambitious global expansion and product vision to date, with the goal of establishing a more direct connection between traditional finance and DeFi, integrating stocks, crypto, RWA, perpetual contracts, and AI trading into a unified financial experience. (The Block)
Bankless founder: Regrets not buying more LIT
Bankless founder David Hoffman posted on X, expressing regret for not buying more Lighter (LIT).Hoffman explained that the logic behind investing in Lighter is simple:1. Exchanges have always been the best business model in the crypto industry;2. Perpetual contracts are still a brand-new track, far from reaching maturity;3. Building an exchange based on zkL2 is currently the structurally optimal solution, offering high security, low operating costs, and high profit margins;4. The product itself is also the strongest on the market, with the lowest latency, the lowest execution costs, and full transparency;5. The engineering team is highly capable, having solved all the technical challenges;6. The company is headquartered in the United States, operates in compliance, and this market remains a largely untapped blue ocean;7. It also serves as an option betting on the "Tokenization of compliant assets";8. Founder Vlad is in the right circles, knows the right people, and has the ambition to do great things.
Holds $41M in long positions with $9.25M in unrealized gains; a whale opened LIT positions 78 days ago and has held HYPE for over a year
: According to Onchain Lens monitoring, a whale holds $41 million worth of LIT and HYPE long positions on Hyperliquid, with $9.25 million in unrealized gains. Among them, a long position of 4.9 million LIT tokens was opened 78 days ago, with $6.46 million in unrealized gains; a long position of 200,000 HYPE tokens was opened 418 days ago, with $2.73 million in unrealized gains. This address has accumulated a total profit of $8.68 million.
Analyst: Variational's $1.5B FDV valuation is overly optimistic, conservative scenario could put it at just $167M
Odaily News: Blockworks analyst Shaunda Devens posted on X that Polymarket's current FDV valuation of approximately $1.5 billion for Variational is somewhat overly optimistic. This pricing directly applies Hyperliquid and Lighter-level valuation-to-revenue multiples to a platform that still relies on points subsidies. By comparison, the median first-day "FDV / annualized revenue" ratio for recently launched Perp DEX tokens is only 6.3x (Variational is currently around 57x), and within the first month after TGE, trading volume typically drops sharply by a median of 54%.Shaunda added that if conservative assumptions based on historical precedents are adopted (using the median first-day "FDV/annualized revenue" ratio of 6.3x), Variational's fair valuation would be only $167 million, corresponding to a points price of $4.8–$5.4. Even using the highest recent ratio precedent (Lighter's approximately 21.1x), its valuation would still only be about $558 million, corresponding to a points price of $16–$18.However, Shaunda also explained: "To be clear, given that current market risk appetite is clearly in a Risk-on state, we do not believe Variational's valuation at TGE will fall to the extremely conservative range mentioned above. These historical multiples are listed to illustrate that current pre-market OTC pricing may be overly optimistic."
Bankless co-founders liquidated their ETH positions in May before allocating to assets such as NEAR and ZEC, all of which gained over 100%.
According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi, Bankless co-founder David Hoffman cleared his ETH position in May and accumulated VVV, NEAR, ZEC, HYPE, and LIT in June. To date, the gains on all the aforementioned tokens he holds have outperformed ETH over the same period, with LIT rising approximately 293%, while NEAR, ZEC, and HYPE have gained roughly 223%, 173%, and 106%, respectively. Hoffman recently reiterated his bullish outlook on the future trajectory of ZEC and NEAR.
After Dumping ETH and Betting on Multiple Altcoins, Bankless Co-Founder Says Altcoin Season Has Arrived
Odaily News: Bankless co-founder David Hoffman posted on X, stating, "We are now in altcoin season, and the real market moment is coming sooner than expected." It is reported that David Hoffman announced the liquidation of his ETH holdings on May 21, and subsequently bought VVV, NEAR, ZEC, HYPE, and LIT, all of which have significantly outperformed ETH.
204% Return in 3 Months: A Smart Money Deposits 475,000 LIT to Lighter, Would Profit $1.512 Million If Sold
Odaily News: According to on-chain analyst Aunt Ai's monitoring, a smart money address (0xa23...CF98) accumulated 475,000 LIT at a cost of $1.56 three months ago, and withdrew tokens worth $2.257 million from Bybit in June 2026. The address deposited all its LIT to Lighter at a price of $4.75 five hours ago, achieving a 204% return over 3 months of holding; if sold, it is expected to profit $1.512 million.
An address associated with early Ethereum contributor billΞ.eth withdrew 500,000 LIT, worth $2.07 million
Odaily News: According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi, an address (0xC31...23fb) associated with early Ethereum contributor billΞ.eth withdrew 500,000 LIT from the Lighter protocol 2 hours ago, worth $2.07 million. Lighter is the Perp DEX built into Robinhood Wallet, and its trading volume has increased recently, with LIT up over 97% in the past month.
Analyst: Variational's $1.5B FDV valuation is overly optimistic, conservative scenario could put it at just $167M
Odaily News: Blockworks analyst Shaunda Devens posted on X that Polymarket's current FDV valuation of approximately $1.5 billion for Variational is somewhat overly optimistic. This pricing directly applies Hyperliquid and Lighter-level valuation-to-revenue multiples to a platform that still relies on points subsidies. By comparison, the median first-day "FDV / annualized revenue" ratio for recently launched Perp DEX tokens is only 6.3x (Variational is currently around 57x), and within the first month after TGE, trading volume typically drops sharply by a median of 54%.Shaunda added that if conservative assumptions based on historical precedents are adopted (using the median first-day "FDV/annualized revenue" ratio of 6.3x), Variational's fair valuation would be only $167 million, corresponding to a points price of $4.8–$5.4. Even using the highest recent ratio precedent (Lighter's approximately 21.1x), its valuation would still only be about $558 million, corresponding to a points price of $16–$18.However, Shaunda also explained: "To be clear, given that current market risk appetite is clearly in a Risk-on state, we do not believe Variational's valuation at TGE will fall to the extremely conservative range mentioned above. These historical multiples are listed to illustrate that current pre-market OTC pricing may be overly optimistic."
Bitwise launches first Lighter ETP on Deutsche Börse
Bitwise has launched its first ETP product tracking the Lighter (LIT) token on the Deutsche Börse, allowing European investors to participate via securities accounts, with staking functionality to be activated once the fund reaches a specified asset threshold.
Suspected Lighter Prediction Market Mechanism Exposed: Plans to Adopt HIP-3-Style Whitelist Operating Model
A commit titled “Binary options support” recently appeared in the codebase for the decentralized order book exchange platform Lighter, indicating that its ZK Circuits may have begun supporting binary outcome markets (prediction markets). Based on the code, each market features a settlement cap, with share prices trading between 0 and the cap; upon settlement, shares ultimately resolve to zero or reach the cap. Contracts are fully collateralized with USDC, meaning they involve no leverage or liquidation. Analysis suggests that Lighter may introduce a "market operator" model, which would allow whitelisted operators to create, manage, and handle market settlement, similar to the HIP-3 deployment model.
CryptoRank: Hyperliquid Tops with $240 Billion in Perpetual Contract Trading Volume Over the Past 30 Days
According to CryptoRank, in the ranking of perpetual contract trading volume across public chains and ecosystems over the past 30 days, Hyperliquid leads with $240 billion in trading volume, firmly holding its dominant market position. Arbitrum ranks second with $47.2 billion, performing best among general-purpose public chains; Solana ranks third with $46 billion. Following closely are Lighter ($45.6 billion), Ethereum mainnet ($44.9 billion), and edgeX ($42.3 billion).
Lighter repurchased a total of 927,800 LIT in August, LIT up over 15% in 24 hours
Odaily News Lighter team released the project's August data summary. In August, Lighter's open interest (OI) exceeded $1 billion, with trading volume reaching approximately $39.5 billion, and its global market share in perpetual contract trading volume continued to rise month-over-month. The independent trading platform built by Robinhood in partnership with Lighter also achieved significant growth in August, with total trading volume reaching approximately $5 billion and total accounts surpassing 21,000, generating approximately $500,000 in total trading fees for the month. Additionally, Lighter repurchased a total of 927,800 LIT tokens in August.According to OKX market data, Lighter is currently trading at 4.42 USDT, up over 15.16% in the past 24 hours.
Floating loss of $5.605 million; Hyperliquid's largest LIT short position adds $2.5 million in margin
Odaily News According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi's monitoring, Hyperliquid's largest LIT short position added $2.5 million in margin today, with a current floating loss of $5.605 million. The short position holds 2.528 million LIT tokens, valued at approximately $8.9 million, with an entry price of $1.3. After LIT was listed on Upbit today, its price surged briefly, prompting the short position to add margin to reduce liquidation risk. Currently, the margin for this single position stands at $7.16 million, with a liquidation price of $5.78.
Related news
CryptoRank: Multiple Projects Face First Large-Scale Team and Investor Unlocks in Q4, With MON Unlocks Valued at $521 Million
According to CryptoRank data, multiple crypto projects will undergo their first major team and investor token unlocks following the end of their cliff periods in Q4 2026, involving MON, STABLE, KITE, LIT, PIEVERSE, and ALLO. Among them, MON is expected to unlock team and investor tokens worth approximately $521 million, representing 131.6% of its current market cap—the highest on the list. STABLE, KITE, LIT, PIEVERSE, and ALLO are projected to unlock tokens valued at approximately $353 million, $119 million, $52 million, $46 million, and $43 million, respectively. Once these tokens enter circulation, they may introduce additional supply pressure.
Holds $41M in long positions with $9.25M in unrealized gains; a whale opened LIT positions 78 days ago and has held HYPE for over a year
: According to Onchain Lens monitoring, a whale holds $41 million worth of LIT and HYPE long positions on Hyperliquid, with $9.25 million in unrealized gains. Among them, a long position of 4.9 million LIT tokens was opened 78 days ago, with $6.46 million in unrealized gains; a long position of 200,000 HYPE tokens was opened 418 days ago, with $2.73 million in unrealized gains. This address has accumulated a total profit of $8.68 million.
LIT Drops Over 14% in Minutes, Triggering Massive Liquidation Cascade
According to Onchain Lens monitoring, LIT dropped over 14% within minutes, triggering a massive liquidation cascade; Robinhood is offering perpetual futures trading in the U.S. through its integration with Bitstamp.
Hyperliquid's funding revenue reached $1.11 million this week.
According to Hyperliquid News, the decentralized trading platform Hyperliquid generated $1.11 million in Priority Fees this week. If treated as a standalone protocol, its revenue would rank 36th among all on-chain protocols, trailing only DexScreener and Lighter.
Revenue reaches $1.11 million; if Hyperliquid's priority fees were listed as a standalone protocol this week, it would rank 36th across the entire network
Odaily report: Hyperliquid's priority fee revenue reached $1.11 million this week. If priority fees were treated as a standalone protocol, its revenue would rank 36th across the entire network, right behind Dexscreener and Lighter.
Analyst: Variational's $1.5B FDV valuation is overly optimistic, conservative scenario could put it at just $167M
Odaily News: Blockworks analyst Shaunda Devens posted on X that Polymarket's current FDV valuation of approximately $1.5 billion for Variational is somewhat overly optimistic. This pricing directly applies Hyperliquid and Lighter-level valuation-to-revenue multiples to a platform that still relies on points subsidies. By comparison, the median first-day "FDV / annualized revenue" ratio for recently launched Perp DEX tokens is only 6.3x (Variational is currently around 57x), and within the first month after TGE, trading volume typically drops sharply by a median of 54%.Shaunda added that if conservative assumptions based on historical precedents are adopted (using the median first-day "FDV/annualized revenue" ratio of 6.3x), Variational's fair valuation would be only $167 million, corresponding to a points price of $4.8–$5.4. Even using the highest recent ratio precedent (Lighter's approximately 21.1x), its valuation would still only be about $558 million, corresponding to a points price of $16–$18.However, Shaunda also explained: "To be clear, given that current market risk appetite is clearly in a Risk-on state, we do not believe Variational's valuation at TGE will fall to the extremely conservative range mentioned above. These historical multiples are listed to illustrate that current pre-market OTC pricing may be overly optimistic."