Lighter vs Gate

Lighter or Gate: which to use

Lighter vs Gate is a decentralized exchange against a centralized one. On Lighter you trade from your own wallet without ID, at 0 bp maker and 0 bp taker on the default Standard account, with up to 50x. Gate requires KYC before the futures account opens, holds your funds in an account, and charges 2 bp maker and 5 bp taker, with up to 200x. As of 1 October 2026 Gate lists 1022 perp markets against Lighter's 194. Custody, ID and the leverage ceiling are the main differences.

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.

Gate 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 custody. On Lighter the funds sit in your wallet. On Gate the funds sit in an account at the company, and the account needs verification before it can trade futures.

Fees and what they mean

Lighter's base tier is 0 bp maker and 0 bp taker, per Lighter's fee page. That is the default Standard account, whose taker orders wait 300 ms. A Premium account has a 140 ms wait and pays 0.4 bp maker and 2.8 bp taker. Gate's base tier is 2 bp maker and 5 bp taker, per Gate's fee page.

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

Fees are only part of a trade's cost. Slippage, the price you move by eating through the order book, grows with size. The round trip in the cost table above adds it to the taker fee at each size from $1k to $5M, which the fee alone does not show.

Markets and leverage

As of 1 October 2026 Lighter lists 194 active perps, 75 of them stocks, commodities, FX or other real-world assets. Gate lists 1022, 301 of them real-world assets.

Gate allows up to 200x and Lighter up to 50x on their highest-leverage markets; most markets allow less. Lighter pays funding every hour on every market. Gate pays every 1 hour, 4 hours or 8 hours depending on the market. An hourly market settles 24 times a day and an 8-hour market three times, so check a market's interval before you hold a position. 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.

Gate requires KYC before the futures account opens. Unverified accounts can only withdraw and close positions.

Vaults, tokens and points

Lighter runs LLP (Lighter Liquidity Provider), a vault operated by the exchange. It 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. Gate's token is $GT.

Reading the numbers on this page

Gate publishes open interest as longs plus shorts, both sides of every position. Lighter publishes one side of open positions. For the same positions Gate's figure reads about twice as large, so the open interest row and chart above are not a like-for-like comparison of size.

Gate has no TVL, as is usual for a centralized exchange, so the TVL row and chart show Lighter alone, as DefiLlama's figure for the deposits its 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 trade with market orders on the Standard account: 0 bp taker, with a 300 ms wait on those orders.
• Pick Lighter if you want every market on an hourly funding schedule, or a no-lock vault to deposit in.
• Pick Gate if you prefer an exchange account and accept KYC before the futures account opens.
• Pick Gate if you need more than 50x, up to 200x on its highest-leverage markets.
• Pick Gate if you want the wider list of markets, 1022 against 194, including 301 real-world assets.