Lighter, the zk-rollup powered perpetuals exchange on Ethereum, is making a deliberate play for professional traders after watching its trading volumes fall off a cliff following its token launch late last year. The platform announced a partnership with Insilico Terminal on May 12, integrating its order book directly into the professional-grade trading interface.
Before its token generation event on December 30, 2025, Lighter was pulling in weekly trading volumes north of $600 million. After the TGE, those volumes dropped nearly threefold.
The airdrop hangover
Lighter’s $LIT token launched with an approximate value of $675 million, with 25% of the supply airdropped to users. The token’s price then fell roughly 22% shortly after launch.
Lighter had raised $68 million at a $1.5 billion valuation in November 2025, just weeks before the TGE. The platform’s core pitch, zero gas fees on executions and a ZK-based order book designed for low-latency matching, hadn’t changed. What changed was the audience. The retail airdrop hunters who drove early volume weren’t the same users who would stick around to provide consistent order flow.
