How Lighter and Hyperliquid differ on chain, volume, fees and model.
| Lighter | Hyperliquid | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | zk perp DEX | Perp L1 (own chain) |
| Chain | zk rollup | Hyperliquid L1 |
| How it works | A zero-knowledge-proven order-book DEX that charges retail zero trading fees, earning revenue from its liquidity pool plus mandatory 1:10 LIT staking. ~248k active addresses, TVL ~$1B. | A purpose-built Layer 1 (HyperBFT consensus) running a fully transparent on-chain CLOB with sub-second matching. 180+ perp markets plus spot HIP-1 tokens; taker 0.035% with maker rebates. |
| Scale* | ~$25B/wk · zero-fee | ~$248B/mo · #1 |
| Max leverage | high | up to 40x |
| Best for | Fee-free retail perps | The deepest, fastest on-chain perps |
Pick Lighter for fee-free retail perps; pick Hyperliquid for the deepest, fastest on-chain perps.
* Volume/TVL = dated snapshot (DefiLlama + venue reports, 2026).