Lighter vs Kraken Futures

Lighter or Kraken Futures: which to use

Lighter vs Kraken Futures is a self-custody decentralized exchange against a centralized exchange with full verification. Lighter needs no ID, charges 0 bp maker and 0 bp taker on its default Standard account (taker orders wait 300 ms), and allows up to 50x. Kraken Futures requires full verification, holds your funds in an account, charges 2 bp maker and 5 bp taker, and allows up to 100x. Lighter has 75 real-world-asset perps among its 194 markets, and Kraken Futures has 19 among its 278. Custody, ID and fee structure decide it for most traders.

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.

Kraken Futures 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 you trade from your own wallet. On Kraken Futures the funds sit in an account at the company. Both match orders on a central limit order book.

Fees and what they mean

Lighter's base tier is 0 bp maker and 0 bp taker, per Lighter's fee page. That applies to the default Standard account, whose taker orders wait 300 ms. A Premium account (140 ms) pays 0.4 bp maker and 2.8 bp taker. Kraken Futures charges 2 bp maker and 5 bp taker, per Kraken's fee schedule.

A market order pays the taker fee on entry and again on exit. That is 0 bp per round trip on Lighter Standard, 5.6 bp on Lighter Premium and 10 bp on Kraken Futures. 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 Kraken Futures. On Lighter the choice is also about speed: Standard saves the fee, Premium shortens the taker wait from 300 ms to 140 ms.

The fee is only part of a trade's cost. Slippage, the price you move by eating through the order book, grows with size. The cost table above adds both at each size from $1k to $5M, and every exchange's trading cost is compared on one page.

Markets and leverage

As of 1 October 2026, Lighter lists 194 active perps and Kraken Futures lists 278. Of those, 75 on Lighter and 19 on Kraken Futures are stocks, commodities, FX or other real-world assets. If you want non-crypto exposure on one venue, the count on Lighter is larger. If you want more crypto markets, the count on Kraken Futures is larger.

Kraken Futures allows up to 100x and Lighter up to 50x on their highest-leverage markets. Most markets on both allow less. Both pay funding every hour on every market, so a position settles funding 24 times a day on either. With an 8-hour interval it would settle three times, so the matching interval means you can compare the two exchanges' rates directly. 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.

Kraken Futures requires full verification. It is not offered in the US, where a separate US product exists. It is also not offered in Canada, in Australia (wholesale only) or to retail UK clients.

What Lighter's vault, token and points offer

Lighter runs LLP (Lighter Liquidity Provider), a vault run by the exchange. It takes USDC deposits, makes markets and takes liquidations, so depositors carry the traders' profit and loss. It has no lock and no operator fee.

Lighter's token is $LIT. As of 19 September 2026, its points and airdrop program was in Season 3.

Reading the numbers on this page

Both exchanges publish open interest as one side of open positions. The open interest row and chart above therefore compare like with like, with no doubling to adjust for.

TVL is different. For Lighter, the TVL row and chart show DefiLlama's figure for the deposits its bridge holds. Kraken Futures has no TVL row or chart, as is usual for a centralized exchange. So the TVL chart shows Lighter alone.

The cost table is measured from live order-book samples. It includes the taker fee twice, and Lighter's taker fee depends on the account type: 0 bp on Standard, 2.8 bp on Premium. Keep that in mind when you compare Lighter's figures with Kraken Futures.

Which one fits you

• Pick Lighter if you want to trade from your own wallet without ID.
• Pick Lighter if you place market orders and can accept a 300 ms taker wait on Standard for 0 bp, or pay 2.8 bp on Premium for 140 ms.
• Pick Lighter if you want more real-world-asset perps: 75 against 19.
• Pick Lighter if you want a vault to deposit USDC in with no lock, or a points program (Season 3 as of 19 September 2026).
• Pick Kraken Futures if you prefer an exchange account and accept full verification.
• Pick Kraken Futures if you need more than 50x, up to 100x on its highest-leverage markets.
• Pick Kraken Futures if you want a wider set of markets, 278 against 194 as of 1 October 2026.