Lighter vs edgeX

Lighter or edgeX: which to use

Lighter vs edgeX comes down to fees, markets and leverage. Lighter's default Standard account pays 0 bp maker and 0 bp taker, but its taker orders wait 300 ms; edgeX charges 4 bp maker and 4.5 bp taker. edgeX lists more stock, commodity and FX perps (107 against 75) and allows up to 100x, while Lighter allows up to 50x and pays funding every hour. Neither asks for ID. Pick Lighter to keep fees at zero and accept the delay, edgeX if you want higher leverage and more real-world asset markets.

How each exchange is built

Both are decentralized exchanges (DEX): you trade from your own self-custody wallet, not from an account held by a company. Lighter runs on zkLighter. edgeX runs on edgeX L2. Both match orders on a central limit order book, so you can place limit orders that rest on the book until they are filled.

Fees and what they mean

Lighter's Standard account is the default and charges 0 bp maker and 0 bp taker. The condition is speed: its taker orders wait 300 ms. A Premium account cuts the wait to 140 ms and pays 0.4 bp maker and 2.8 bp taker. The rates are on Lighter's fee page.

edgeX's base tier is 4 bp maker and 4.5 bp taker, per edgeX's fee page. A market order pays the taker fee on entry and again on exit, so a round trip costs 9 bp in fees on edgeX before anything else. A limit order that rests on the book pays the maker fee instead.

The fee is only part of a trade's cost. The rest is slippage: the price you move by eating through the order book. The cost table above adds both for each size, and every exchange's trading cost is compared on one page.

Markets and leverage

As of 1 October 2026, Lighter lists 194 active perps, 75 of them stocks, commodities, FX or other real-world assets. edgeX lists 179, 107 of them real-world assets. So edgeX has more real-world asset markets, and Lighter has more markets in total.

edgeX allows up to 100x and Lighter up to 50x on their highest-leverage markets; most markets allow less. Lighter pays funding every hour on every market, edgeX every 4 hours. Over a day, a position settles funding 24 times on Lighter and 6 times on edgeX. A shorter interval means the rate is applied in smaller, more frequent payments. The markets both exchanges list are further down this page, with each one's funding rate.

Who can use them

Neither exchange asks for ID. Lighter's card deposit on-ramp is optional, and the exchange is closed to the US, Canada, the UK, China, Russia, Ukraine and sanctioned countries. edgeX accepts a wallet or MPC login and is closed to US and Ontario residents and sanctioned countries; it forbids VPNs.

Vaults, tokens and points

Lighter runs a vault, LLP (Lighter Liquidity Provider). It takes USDC deposits, makes markets and takes liquidations, so depositors carry the traders' profit and loss in both directions. It has no lock and no operator fee. edgeX has no vault that arb.sh tracks. The vaults page lists the vaults perp DEXs run themselves.

Lighter's token is $LIT and edgeX's is $EDGE. As of 19 September 2026 Lighter's points program was in "Season 3" and edgeX's was "Active".

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. Neither figure counts longs plus shorts.

TVL above is DefiLlama's figure for the deposits each exchange's bridge holds. It is not the size of Lighter's LLP vault.

Which one fits you

• Pick Lighter if you want to pay no trading fee and a 300 ms wait on taker orders does not matter to your strategy.
• Pick Lighter if you want funding settled every hour instead of every 4 hours.
• Pick Lighter if you want a vault with no lock and no operator fee.
• Pick edgeX if you trade stocks, commodities or FX and want the larger set of them, 107 markets as of 1 October 2026.
• Pick edgeX if you need up to 100x leverage.
• Pick edgeX if you are in the UK, Canada or another region Lighter is closed to.

Lighter's page and edgeX's page have each exchange's markets, funding and fees.