Hyperliquid vs Lighter
Hyperliquid runs an order book with a 0.045% base taker fee. Lighter runs an order book with a 0% base taker fee on the Standard account. Neither requires KYC. Both bar the United States.
Our take: Lighter's Standard account pays no trading fee but waits on a deliberate order delay, and its published country exclusions are long. Hyperliquid has one fee schedule with market exceptions and a shorter named exclusion list. Neither runs identity checks. Check both before the fee decides anything.
On-chain order-book perpetuals with wallet or email sign-in.
Order-book perpetuals on an Ethereum zk-rollup. The default account pays no trading fee.
| Criterion | Hyperliquid | Lighter |
|---|---|---|
| Fee model | Order book | Order book |
| Base fee | 0.045% taker, 0.015% maker | 0% taker, 0% maker (Standard account) |
| KYC | No KYC | No KYC |
| Restricted countries | United States and Canada (partly) | United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and 11 more |
| Leverage | 3x to 40x by asset | 3x to 50x by market |
| Markets | 100+ perpetual assets, plus spot | 160+ perpetual markets, plus spot |
| Open interest | $8.21BOne side. DefiLlama, | $823MOne side. DefiLlama, |
| 24h volume | $9.44BCoinGecko, | $2.28BCoinGecko, |
| TVL | $7.15BTotal value locked. DefiLlama, | $668MTotal value locked. DefiLlama, |
Should you use Hyperliquid or Lighter?
Our assessment from the published documentation.
When Hyperliquid may fit
You want one fee schedule, a familiar order-book workflow, and the option to sign up with an email instead of a wallet. You are willing to check the tier and any market exceptions yourself, and you want to trade without identity checks. You are outside the US, Ontario, and sanctioned jurisdictions.
When Lighter may fit
The explicit trading fee is your main comparison point and a Standard account's deliberate order delay suits you. You want the wider market list, including stocks, FX, and commodities, or a deposit route from Solana, Bitcoin, or Tron. You are not in one of the excluded countries, which include the US, Canada, and the UK.
The difference that matters
The base rates leave out most of what a trade costs. Funding, spread, execution, and moving collateral can change the result, and on Lighter the zero fee comes with a delay on taker orders that Hyperliquid does not impose. Hyperliquid publishes its withdrawal fee, while Lighter shows its fee only on the withdrawal screen.
Our conclusion
Check two things before the fees: whether your country is on Lighter's exclusion list, and which Lighter account type you would actually trade on. If Lighter excludes your country, the fee comparison is moot. If you need Premium or Plus, compare that schedule with Hyperliquid's rather than Standard.
How Hyperliquid and Lighter compare
Every fact links to the page it comes from.
| Criterion | Hyperliquid | Lighter |
|---|---|---|
| Fees | 0.045%Taker fee, 0.015% maker. Base tier, standard perpetuals Tier 0 rates for standard perpetuals. Your tier follows 14-day volume, with spot volume counting double, and the staking and referral discounts multiply on top. HIP-3 markets and some quote assets use different rates, so check the fee shown before you confirm. | 0%Taker fee, 0% maker. Standard account, perpetuals and spot A Standard account, the default, pays no maker or taker fee on perpetuals or spot. The trade-off is speed: Standard orders wait 300 ms before they reach the book, and the Premium account that removes most of that delay pays 0.028% taker and 0.004% maker before staking discounts. Plus accounts pay 0.005% for higher API rate limits. Advanced order types cost 0.01% on a Standard account. |
| KYC | No KYC There is no identity verification step in the official interface. The Terms require a non-custodial wallet, and the onboarding guide covers wallet or email sign-in, then a deposit. Fiat deposits go through Swapped.com, a separate provider. | No KYC You connect a wallet and sign, with no identity check in the official interface. The Terms say the interface logs IP addresses only to enforce the access restrictions and collects no other personal data. The app applies the country list by IP: from a restricted location it shows a restricted-jurisdiction notice and marks the session geo-blocked. |
| Country restrictions | 2+ countries restricted The Terms bar the US, Ontario, and any jurisdiction under applicable sanctions or export controls, including citizens of those jurisdictions wherever they live. The sanctioned jurisdictions are not listed. Outcome markets have a separate exclusion list. | 14+ countries restricted The Terms, last updated December 29, 2025, name fourteen excluded countries: the US, Canada, the UK, China, North Korea, Russia, Ukraine, Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, Sudan, Belarus, Myanmar, and Syria, plus any jurisdiction under comprehensive sanctions and anyone on a sanctions list. The interface applies the list by IP address. The separate Lighter on Robinhood Chain deployment also excludes Singapore, Switzerland, the UAE, and South Sudan. |
| Leverage | 3x to 40x by asset Maximum leverage is set per asset, from 3x to 40x, and you can choose any whole number up to the cap. Cross margin is the default, and isolated margin is available. Caps step down on large positions, for example BTC from 40x to 20x above $150M notional and ETH from 25x to 15x above $100M. Maintenance margin is half the initial margin at maximum leverage. | 3x to 50x by market Maximum leverage is set per market: 50x for BTC and ETH, 25x for SOL, 20x for XRP, HYPE, and BNB, 15x for ARB and OP, 10x or less for most other coins, and 3x for the newest listings. Major FX pairs run up to 25x, gold 15x, silver 10x. You can lower the leverage on any market. Positions are cross-margined unless you set a market to isolated. Pre-launch markets are isolated only. With a Unified Trading Account, ETH and XAUT count as margin at a haircut. |
| Markets | 100+ perpetual assets, plus spot More than 100 crypto perpetual assets and a spot order book, plus builder-deployed (HIP-3) perpetual markets on other assets that carry their own fees and leverage limits. Order types: market, limit, stop and take-profit in market or limit form, trailing stop, chase, scale, and TWAP, with reduce-only, post-only, and immediate-or-cancel options. | 160+ perpetual markets, plus spot The contract specifications list about 100 crypto perpetuals, and the RWA specifications add roughly 70 more that trade around the clock: gold, silver, copper, oil, gas, FX pairs, US and Asian stocks, ETFs and indexes, and pre-IPO names such as OpenAI and Anthropic. Pre-IPO and pre-launch markets are isolated-margin only, and pre-IPO prices come from Lighter's own pricing mechanism rather than a market feed. A small spot book trades ETH, LIT, and a few other tokens against USDC. Order types: market, limit, stop-loss and take-profit in market or limit form, TWAP, chase limit, atomic basket orders, and RFQ for size, with post-only, reduce-only, good-til-time, and immediate-or-cancel options. |
| Depositing | USDC, BTC, ETH, SOL and more The direct route is USDC on Arbitrum, which needs a little ETH for gas. The deposit screen also accepts USDC sent from Ethereum, Base, or Polygon, and BTC, ETH, SOL, AVAX, ZEC, and several other tokens through Unit, an independent team, and you then sell those for USDC on the spot market. Fiat deposits go through Swapped.com, also independent. Trading itself is gas-free. | USDC from Ethereum, Arbitrum, Solana, Base, and more Collateral is USDC. The direct route is a deposit from Ethereum mainnet into the exchange contract, minimum 1 USDC. Lighter's bridge, run with Fun.xyz, an independent provider, gives you a deposit address that accepts USDC, USDT, ETH, and other tokens from Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, Polygon, BNB Chain, Solana, HyperEVM, Monad, Tron, and Bitcoin and credits USDC, with a $5 minimum for a new account ($3 from EVM chains and Solana afterwards, $10 from Bitcoin). The app's deposit notice also lists card and Coinbase deposits. ETH and XAUT can be deposited to the spot balance and, with a Unified Trading Account, posted as margin at a haircut. |
| Withdrawing | $1 fee, about 5 minutes Withdrawing USDC to Arbitrum costs a flat $1, charged in USDC, and takes about five minutes. Validators sign the transfer, so you pay no Arbitrum gas. Other chains and assets use separate routes, and the withdrawal screen shows any gas fee before you confirm. Use Withdraw, not Send: Send only moves funds to another Hyperliquid account. | Ethereum, or fast USDC to Arbitrum Two routes. A secure withdrawal is proven to Ethereum and then claimable there. Lighter says it usually claims on your behalf unless gas is high, and the minimum is 1 USDC. A fast withdrawal sends USDC to Arbitrum with a 4 USDC minimum. The docs do not publish the fee for either route, but the withdrawal screen shows it before you confirm. |
| Referral program | 4% fee discount Entering a code gives a 4% fee discount on your first $25M of volume, excluding vaults and sub-accounts. Referrers receive 10% of their referred users' fees. No ChainScouter code is active. | One week of Premium fees rebated Joining through a referral link rebates the Premium trading fees you pay in your first week, on up to $10M of volume, paid out weekly. A Standard account pays no trading fee, so the benefit only matters if you opt into Premium. Referrers earn 10% to 30% of their referred users' fees. Rebates are discretionary, and the code cannot be changed after sign-up. No ChainScouter code is active. |
| Platform | Web, plus third-party mobile apps The official interface is the website. The onboarding guide lists third-party apps with iOS and Android builds (Based, Dexari, MetaMask, and Phantom) and a QR code flow that links a phone to a desktop wallet extension. | Web, iOS, and Android apps The web app at app.lighter.xyz is the main interface. Lighter also publishes its own Lighter Mobile app for iOS and Android, linked from the official site. Unified Trading Accounts can only be enabled on the web for now. |
Rates apply to the accounts and markets in each scope, before discounts. Funding, execution, and transfer costs are separate. A country missing from a restriction list is not confirmed eligible.
Questions about Hyperliquid and Lighter
Is Hyperliquid or Lighter cheaper?
Lighter has the lower published base taker fee, 0% against 0.045%. Funding, execution, and transfer costs are separate.
Hyperliquid: Base perpetual fees are 0.045% taker and 0.015% maker. Tier 0 rates for standard perpetuals. Your tier follows 14-day volume, with spot volume counting double, and the staking and referral discounts multiply on top. HIP-3 markets and some quote assets use different rates, so check the fee shown before you confirm.
Lighter: Base perpetual fees are 0% taker and 0% maker. A Standard account, the default, pays no maker or taker fee on perpetuals or spot. The trade-off is speed: Standard orders wait 300 ms before they reach the book, and the Premium account that removes most of that delay pays 0.028% taker and 0.004% maker before staking discounts. Plus accounts pay 0.005% for higher API rate limits. Advanced order types cost 0.01% on a Standard account.
Do Hyperliquid and Lighter require KYC?
Neither requires KYC.
Hyperliquid: There is no identity verification step in the official interface. The Terms require a non-custodial wallet, and the onboarding guide covers wallet or email sign-in, then a deposit. Fiat deposits go through Swapped.com, a separate provider.
Lighter: You connect a wallet and sign, with no identity check in the official interface. The Terms say the interface logs IP addresses only to enforce the access restrictions and collects no other personal data. The app applies the country list by IP: from a restricted location it shows a restricted-jurisdiction notice and marks the session geo-blocked.
Can I use Hyperliquid or Lighter in the US?
No. Both name the US as restricted.
Hyperliquid: The Terms bar the US, Ontario, and any jurisdiction under applicable sanctions or export controls, including citizens of those jurisdictions wherever they live. The sanctioned jurisdictions are not listed. Outcome markets have a separate exclusion list.
Lighter: The Terms, last updated December 29, 2025, name fourteen excluded countries: the US, Canada, the UK, China, North Korea, Russia, Ukraine, Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, Sudan, Belarus, Myanmar, and Syria, plus any jurisdiction under comprehensive sanctions and anyone on a sanctions list. The interface applies the list by IP address. The separate Lighter on Robinhood Chain deployment also excludes Singapore, Switzerland, the UAE, and South Sudan.
What leverage do Hyperliquid and Lighter offer?
Hyperliquid: Maximum leverage is set per asset, from 3x to 40x, and you can choose any whole number up to the cap. Cross margin is the default, and isolated margin is available. Caps step down on large positions, for example BTC from 40x to 20x above $150M notional and ETH from 25x to 15x above $100M. Maintenance margin is half the initial margin at maximum leverage.
Lighter: Maximum leverage is set per market: 50x for BTC and ETH, 25x for SOL, 20x for XRP, HYPE, and BNB, 15x for ARB and OP, 10x or less for most other coins, and 3x for the newest listings. Major FX pairs run up to 25x, gold 15x, silver 10x. You can lower the leverage on any market. Positions are cross-margined unless you set a market to isolated. Pre-launch markets are isolated only. With a Unified Trading Account, ETH and XAUT count as margin at a haircut.
What can I trade on Hyperliquid and Lighter?
Hyperliquid: More than 100 crypto perpetual assets and a spot order book, plus builder-deployed (HIP-3) perpetual markets on other assets that carry their own fees and leverage limits. Order types: market, limit, stop and take-profit in market or limit form, trailing stop, chase, scale, and TWAP, with reduce-only, post-only, and immediate-or-cancel options.
Lighter: The contract specifications list about 100 crypto perpetuals, and the RWA specifications add roughly 70 more that trade around the clock: gold, silver, copper, oil, gas, FX pairs, US and Asian stocks, ETFs and indexes, and pre-IPO names such as OpenAI and Anthropic. Pre-IPO and pre-launch markets are isolated-margin only, and pre-IPO prices come from Lighter's own pricing mechanism rather than a market feed. A small spot book trades ETH, LIT, and a few other tokens against USDC. Order types: market, limit, stop-loss and take-profit in market or limit form, TWAP, chase limit, atomic basket orders, and RFQ for size, with post-only, reduce-only, good-til-time, and immediate-or-cancel options.
Compare other pairs
Highlighted pairs are reviewed. The others show facts without a recommendation.