Lighter vs OKX

Lighter or OKX: which to use

Lighter vs OKX 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. OKX requires advanced verification before you trade, deposit or withdraw, holds your funds in an account, and charges 2 bp maker and 5 bp taker, with up to 100x. OKX lists 480 perp markets to Lighter's 194. Custody, ID and the leverage cap 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, so no company account holds your funds. It matches orders on a central limit order book.

OKX 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.

The difference for you is where your funds sit and what you must provide to start: a wallet on Lighter, a verified account on OKX.

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.

OKX's base tier is 2 bp maker and 5 bp taker, per OKX's fee page.

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

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

Markets and leverage

As of 1 October 2026 OKX lists 480 active perps, 191 of them stocks, commodities, FX or other real-world assets. Lighter lists 194, of which 75 are real-world assets.

OKX 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. OKX pays every 4 hours or 8 hours depending on the market. Funding is the periodic payment between longs and shorts, and a positive rate means longs pay shorts. An hourly market settles 24 times a day, a 4-hour market six times and 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. OKX requires advanced verification before trading, deposits or withdrawals.

Vaults, tokens and points

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, and as of 19 September 2026 its points program was in Season 3. OKX's token is $OKB.

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 for like in how they are counted.

OKX publishes no TVL, as is usual for a centralized exchange, so that row and chart show Lighter alone. For Lighter, the figure is DefiLlama's number 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 and can accept the 300 ms taker wait: 0 bp maker and taker on the Standard account.
• Pick Lighter if you want every market on an hourly funding schedule, or a vault with no lock to deposit in.
• Pick OKX if you prefer an exchange account and accept advanced verification.
• Pick OKX if you need more than 50x, up to 100x on the highest-leverage markets.
• Pick OKX if you want the wider list of 480 perps, 191 of them real-world assets, on one exchange.