Order-book perpetual and spot exchange built as an app-specific ZK rollup on Ethereum, with verifiable matching and liquidations and zero fees on standard accounts.
New users: Weekly points drops and a free Premium trial week via referral
Claim on Lighter ↗
Peer-to-peer RFQ derivatives protocol on Arbitrum; its Omni app offers zero-fee perpetuals on 500+ crypto and traditional markets.
New users: Weekly points toward the VAR genesis airdrop, plus loss refunds
Claim on Variational ↗
LighterVariational
Trading fees (base tier)
Spot maker0%—
Spot taker0%—
Futures maker0%0%
Futures taker0%0%
Markets (live)
Coins listed212565
Coins with perpetuals212565
Coins with spot pairs00
24h volume$2.38B—
Coins only here156 coins trade on both56409
New listings (detected live)
Last 30 days1—
Last 90 days1—
Safety and access
Proof of reservesYes · real-timeYes · real-time
LicensesNone listedNone listed
Restricted regions15 regionsUnited States, Canada, United Kingdom, China, North Korea…10 regionsUnited States and US territories (incl. Puerto Rico, Guam, US Virgin Islands), Canada, Taiwan, Cuba, Iran…
HeadquartersLighter, Inc. (Delaware corporation, United States)—
Exchange tokenLITVAR
Incidents on record10
Lighter or Variational?
Lighter and Variational are compared here on what matters when you choose where to trade: base trading fees, how many coins each lists, how quickly they add new ones, perpetual prices and funding on the coins both list, and safety signals such as proof of reserves and restricted regions. Live numbers update from the exchanges' public market data; fees and policies were checked against each exchange's own pages.
Lighter lists 212 coins and Variational 565. 156 coins trade on both, 56 only on Lighter and 409 only on Variational. In the last 30 days Lighter added 1 new coins and Variational —.
Fees above are base-tier rates before VIP levels and token discounts; Lighter offers 4 discount options and Variational offers 3 discount options. Availability depends on where you live, so check the restricted regions before signing up.