Robinhood's Perps Partner Lights Up Decentralized Exchange Market

Lighter is a decentralized exchange specializing in perpetual futures, built as an Ethereum layer 2 using custom zero-knowledge circuits.

Founded by Vladimir Novakovski in 2022 and launched on October 1, 2025, after an extended beta, Lighter processes transactions off-chain for speed while posting cryptographic proofs on-chain, ensuring verifiable order matching and liquidations at latency competitive with centralized exchanges.

The exchange uses a zero-knowledge rollup architecture to address the tension between decentralization and speed in on-chain derivatives.

Lighter's token is $LIT, which has a market valuation of around $2.75 billion fully diluted, based on distribution rather than current fee revenue.

In July 2026, Lighter integrated with Robinhood Wallet, allowing users to access perpetual futures through the exchange.

The integration went live on July 1, 2026, and features a revamped Robinhood Wallet that gives eligible users access to perpetual futures through Lighter's smart contracts.