Out of all the narratives that defined 2025, perpetual derivatives may have been the most significant, but just two weeks after Lighter’s token generation event (TGE), the token is already underperforming as traders transition to other platforms.
Lighter’s LIT token is down 15% today and 27% over the last week, and the platform’s activity metrics are beginning to slow as airdrop farmers chase incentives on competing exchanges.
After regularly leading the market in perpetuals volume in November and December, Lighter has fallen to fifth place by daily volume with $1.73 billion, after regularly processing between $7 billion and $12 billion at its peak. Aster and Hyperliquid have reclaimed the number one and two spots, and pre-token protocols EdgeX and GRVT have surpassed Lighter, with Variational hot on its tail.
It is worth noting that Lighter is still the third-largest perpetual DEX by open interest, which many traders and analysts consider a more reliable performance metric.
Hyperliquid’s HYPE token is also underperforming today, and is down 3.4% while BTC is up 1.1%.
While mercenary liquidity continues to spread across perp DEXs in search of new incentives, some users are considering the potential impact that LIT and HYPE underperformance may have on future airdrops.
“$LIT all-time low. Not sure how well that bodes for your other “perp dex” farms, but probably not great lol,” trader and crypto influencer MoonOverlord posted on X.