Lighter airdrop pushes the Hyperliquid rival’s valuation to $2.5bn

Core Insights - Lighter, the largest decentralized perpetual futures exchange, recently airdropped its token LIT, with half of the supply allocated to employees and investors, and a quarter to early users [1][5] - The token opened at over $3.30 but dropped to around $2.50 shortly after [1] - The total supply of LIT is 1 billion tokens, valuing the protocol at approximately $2.5 billion, which is a 66% increase from its previous valuation of $1.5 billion when it raised $68 million in November [2] Company Overview - Lighter is developed by Elliot Technologies, based in Florida, and operates as a layer 2 blockchain on Ethereum, focusing on decentralized exchange for spot and perpetual futures trading [3] - Since its launch in January, Lighter has achieved over $201 billion in trading volume in the past 30 days, establishing itself as a leading player in the perpetual futures market [3] Business Model - Lighter adopts a fee-free model for most users, inspired by Robinhood, only charging fees for market makers and high-frequency traders since September [4] - The company aims to simplify trading for retail users to expand its market reach [4] Token Distribution and Utility - The token distribution includes a quarter for users who accrued points since the launch, another quarter for future growth initiatives, and half for employees and investors, with a one-year lockup and three-year vesting period [5] - LIT will serve as a fee token for financial data providers and subscribers, with staking incentivizing verifiable data for trading and risk management [6] - Revenue generated by the protocol will be allocated to growth initiatives and token buybacks [6] Value Proposition - The company asserts that the value generated by all Lighter products and services will accrue to LIT holders, emphasizing its commitment to building in the USA and operating the protocol at cost [7]