Lighter vs BingX

Lighter or BingX: which to use

Lighter vs BingX is a decentralized exchange against a centralized one. On Lighter you trade from a self-custody wallet without ID, at 0 bp maker and 0 bp taker on the default Standard account, with up to 50x. BingX requires Advanced KYC to deposit or trade, holds your funds in an account, and charges 2 bp maker and 5 bp taker, with up to 500x. BingX lists 1240 markets against Lighter's 194. Custody, ID and leverage are the main differences between them.

How each exchange is built

Lighter is a decentralized exchange (DEX) that runs on zkLighter. You trade from a self-custody wallet. It matches orders on a central limit order book, so your resting orders sit on that book.

BingX is a centralized exchange (CEX): you open an account with the company, and the account holds your funds. It also matches orders on a central limit order book.

For the trader, the difference is where the funds sit. On Lighter they stay in your wallet. On BingX they sit in your account with the company, and you deal with the company's account rules.

Fees and what they mean

Lighter's default Standard account pays 0 bp maker and 0 bp taker, per Lighter's fee page. The condition is latency: Standard taker orders wait 300 ms. A Premium account (140 ms) pays 0.4 bp maker and 2.8 bp taker. BingX's base tier is 2 bp maker and 5 bp taker, per BingX's fee page.

A market order pays the taker fee to open and again to close. That is 0 bp per round trip on Lighter Standard, 5.6 bp on Lighter Premium and 10 bp on BingX. A limit order that rests on the book pays the maker fee instead: 0 bp on Standard, 0.4 bp on Premium and 2 bp on BingX.

The fee is only part of a trade's cost. Slippage is the price you move by eating through the order book, and it grows with size. The cost table above adds the taker fee twice and the measured slippage at each size from $1k to $5M, so it shows more than the fee alone.

Markets and leverage

As of 1 October 2026 BingX lists 1240 active perps, 234 of them stocks, commodities, FX or other real-world assets. Lighter lists 194, 75 of them real-world assets. The real-world asset perps page covers that group across exchanges.

BingX allows up to 500x and Lighter up to 50x on their highest-leverage markets; most markets allow less. Lighter pays funding every hour on every market. BingX pays every 1 hour, 4 hours or 8 hours depending on the market. An hourly market settles 24 times a day, an 8-hour market three times, so check a market's interval before you hold it. The list further down this page shows the markets both exchanges have and each one's funding rate.

Who can use them

Lighter asks for no ID. The card deposit on-ramp is optional. Lighter is closed to the US, Canada, the UK, China, Russia, Ukraine and sanctioned countries.

BingX requires Advanced KYC to deposit or trade. Unverified accounts can only withdraw, up to 20,000 USDT a day. Rules vary by region.

Vaults, tokens and points

Lighter runs LLP (Lighter Liquidity Provider), a vault run by the exchange that makes markets and takes liquidations, so its depositors carry the traders' profit and loss. It takes USDC, has no lock and charges no operator fee. Lighter's token is $LIT, and as of 19 September 2026 its points program was in "Season 3".

Reading the numbers on this page

Both exchanges publish open interest as one side of open positions, so the open interest row and chart above compare like with like.

BingX has no TVL, as is usual for a centralized exchange, so the TVL row and chart show Lighter alone. That figure is DefiLlama's number for the deposits Lighter's bridge holds.

Which one fits you

• Pick Lighter if you want to keep funds in your own wallet and trade without ID.
• Pick Lighter if you place market orders and accept the 300 ms taker wait on Standard: 0 bp taker against BingX's 5 bp.
• Pick Lighter if you want every market on an hourly funding schedule, or a USDC vault with no lock to deposit in.
• Pick BingX if you prefer an exchange account and accept Advanced KYC.
• Pick BingX if you need more than 50x, up to 500x on the highest-leverage markets.
• Pick BingX if you want a wider list of 1240 markets, including 234 real-world assets, on one exchange.