Lighter's stated model ties LIT to the exchange's revenue

Lighter’s stated model has a single asset for economic value accrual: LIT, with no separate equity asset sharing in the business’s value1. Some market participants argue that this links the exchange’s commercial success to the token, and only to the token. The intended route is narrow: revenue funds LIT buybacks and permanent burns². This creates a token buyback loop that, in theory, drives demand for LIT.

Some market participants argue that more trading produces more revenue. Lighter earns fees from professional traders, such as market makers, and interest on the USD Coin (USDC) held on the platform. Standard accounts trade without fees; however, Lighter charges fees to professional traders, and more retail activity gives these traders more to trade against. Thus, generating more revenue for Lighter through the fees charged to professional traders, as well as the additional benefit of earning more interest on the increased USDC retail brings to the platform.

The link still carries risk. Burns reduce total supply, but scheduled token unlocks can still increase the number of LIT in circulation, so the thesis depends on buybacks that are meaningful relative to LIT’s valuation and incoming supply. Revenue also depends on the fee rates professional traders pay and on the interest earned on USDC, and neither is fixed.

Robinhood gives Lighter a distribution route, with a US limit

Robinhood Chain and Robinhood Wallet integrate with Lighter, where eligible users can trade Lighter perpetual futures directly, and Robinhood Ventures has also invested in Lighter.3 The argument is that access through an established consumer brand could bring in users who would never seek out an onchain exchange, meaning one that runs on a blockchain.

The route has a clear limit. Lighter does not hold the licenses needed to offer its perpetual futures product in the US, so Robinhood cannot currently offer it there through Lighter.3 Access through a partner also does not guarantee trading activity.

Lighter offers markets beyond crypto

Lighter offers markets on a slew of financial assets such as equities, commodities, foreign exchange (FX), equity indices, pre-IPO exposure, and more.

The argument for this breadth is that traders can respond to corporate developments, commodity prices, and currency movements on the same platform. That could increase activity per user and reduce the business’s dependence on periods of strong crypto speculation. FX is the largest of these markets. Global over-the-counter (OTC) FX turnover averaged $9.6 trillion per day in 2025 (Bank for International Settlements Triennial Survey).⁴

Listing new markets does not by itself win trading in them. Each market needs reliable pricing, sufficient liquidity, and competitive execution, and much of global FX turnover reflects institutional funding and hedging activity that may not migrate to onchain perpetual futures.

Why access Lighter through an ETP?

For investors who have decided they want Lighter exposure, the ETP structure addresses the main practical barrier of direct purchase: complexity.

Buying LIT directly requires opening a separate crypto exchange account, managing custody of the LIT, and in some cases handling private keys. Losing or mismanaging private keys means losing access to the LIT permanently. For a position within a broader investment portfolio, this operational complexity may not be proportionate to the size of the allocation.

LIHT trades through the same brokerage account an investor already uses for equities or other funds. There is no separate crypto account to open and no private keys to manage.

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  1. Bitget Academy, "What is Lighter (LIT) and how does it work": https://www.bitget.com/academy/what-is-lighter-lit-and-how-does-it-work
  2. Lighter official documentation: https://lighter.xyz/
  3. Crypto.news, "What is Lighter? Robinhood's perps DEX partner": https://crypto.news/what-is-lighter-robinhood-perps-dex/
  4. Global Brands Magazine, citing the Bank for International Settlements Triennial Survey: https://www.globalbrandsmagazine.com/foreign-exchange-market/