Lighter overtakes Hyperliquid – Peter Thiel invests millions

INFBusiness
12.11.2025
Markets

Crypto startup Lighter has reportedly raised $68 million in a funding round, according to Fortune. At the same time, data from DeFiLlama shows that the Hyperliquid competitor briefly became the world's most widely traded derivatives protocol.
In the last 30 days, the platform generated around 279 billion US dollars in revenue – more than the previous market leader Hyperliquid with 266 billion US dollars.
The funding round was led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund and Ribbit Capital. Robinhood and Haun Ventures also participated – a rare occurrence, as Robinhood has made very few venture capital investments to date.
Lighter combines a decentralized derivatives exchange (DEX) and the Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain in a single infrastructure. The focus is on perpetual futures, i.e., crypto derivatives with no expiration date.
Spot trading for Bitcoin and other tokens is expected to follow in the coming weeks. Lighter recently launched forex trading on its platform with leverage of up to 25x.
Founder and former Citadel trader Vladimir Novakovski wants to create the basis for “fair and transparent blockchain-based financial markets”, as he explained to Fortune.
With its Layer 2 architecture, Lighter distinguishes itself from Hyperliquid, which runs on its own Layer 1 chain. According to L2BEAT, Lighter's blockchain is now among the highest-volume networks on Ethereum.
The success of Hyperliquid and the prospect of lucrative airdrops have recently fueled a massive surge in the perpetual exchange (PERP) market segment. More and more investors are turning away from centralized exchanges like Binance and seeking decentralized alternatives with greater transparency.
Unlike Aster, the competing platform backed by Binance founder CZ, there is little indication of a short-term hype surrounding Lighter.
For investors, the entry of Peter Thiel is a particularly strong signal: According to Fortune, Lighter is now valued at around 1.5 billion US dollars .
According to reports, excitement is growing within the community regarding the Lighter token, which – similar to Hyperliquid's HYPE – is to be distributed via airdrop. Active traders can already qualify for the future distribution through their trading volume and activity on the platform.

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