Hyperliquid vs Lighter
98 shared markets. Funding is higher on Hyperliquid for 86 and on Lighter for 12, mean 0.0044% per 8h. On 7-day averages a long was cheaper on Lighter.
Side by side
| Hyperliquid | Lighter | |
|---|---|---|
| Perp markets (snapshot) | 178 | 213 |
| Open interest (snapshot) | $11.36B | $530.8M |
| 24h volume (snapshot) | $5.81B | $1.98B |
| Maker fee (base) | 0.015% | 0% |
| Taker fee (base) | 0.045% | 0% |
| Funding interval | Every hour, at 1/8 of the computed 8-hour rate | Every hour; the 1-hour premium is divided by 8 so the premium is spread over 8 hours |
| Interest component | 0.01% per 8 hours (0.00125% per hour, about 11.6% APR paid to shorts) | Per-market fixed interest rate component (the BTC market publishes 0.0032 as base interest rate in its market config) |
| Premium clamp | clamp(interest − premium, −0.05%, +0.05%); premium sampled every 5 s and averaged over the hour | Small clamp and big clamp per market (BTC: 0.05 and 4.0, multiplied by a funding premium multiplier of 50 in the market config); premium sampled once per minute at a random time |
| Chain | Hyperliquid L1 (HyperCore order book, HyperEVM) | Lighter zk-rollup (Ethereum L2) with verifiable matching |
| Accounts | Perps and spot share one fee tier; spot volume counts double. Referral discount 4% for the first $25M of volume. | Three account types: Standard (free), Plus (0.5 bps, more rate limit), Premium/Advanced (fee-paying, 140 ms taker latency). |
| Referral program | Referral codes available after $10,000 of own volume: referrer earns 10% of referred users' fees, referee gets a 4% fee discount on the first $25M. | Referral kickbacks apply only to fees paid by referred users on paid account types: 10% (Bronze) or 20% (Silver, 15+ active referrals). Referee gets a 10% fee rebate. Paid weekly on Mondays, $1 minimum. |
| Builder / integrator fees | Builder codes: an app may charge up to 0.1% on perps and 1% on spot per order (user approves a maximum fee once). Builder needs ≥100 USDC in the perps account. | Partner Attribution: integrators may charge up to 10 bps on perps and 100 bps on spot through their own frontend; non-zero fees require the client to be on a Plus or Premium account. |
Funding on shared markets (top 25 by open interest)
| Token | Hyperliquid 8h | Lighter 8h | Difference APR | 7d avg diff APR | Cheaper long |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BTC | 0.0100% | 0.0096% | 0.4% | 1.2% | Lighter |
| ETH | 0.0049% | 0.0096% | -5.1% | 2.7% | Lighter |
| HYPE | 0.0100% | 0.0048% | 5.7% | 4.5% | Lighter |
| SOL | 0.0045% | 0.0008% | 4.1% | 0.7% | Lighter |
| ZEC | 0.0100% | 0.0096% | 0.4% | 0.6% | Lighter |
| NEAR | 0.0100% | 0.0096% | 0.4% | -1.5% | Hyperliquid |
| XRP | 0.0100% | 0.0096% | 0.4% | 11.0% | Lighter |
| PUMP | 0.0100% | 0.0096% | 0.4% | 0.0% | Lighter |
| LIT | 0.0100% | 0.0000% | 10.9% | -7.5% | Hyperliquid |
| DOGE | 0.0100% | 0.0096% | 0.4% | 0.4% | Lighter |
| ENA | 0.0100% | 0.0096% | 0.4% | 0.8% | Lighter |
| ZRO | 0.0100% | 0.0096% | 0.4% | -11.5% | Hyperliquid |
| WLD | 0.0100% | 0.0096% | 0.4% | -3.1% | Hyperliquid |
| UNI | 0.0036% | 0.0096% | -6.6% | 5.1% | Lighter |
| VVV | 0.0100% | 0.0096% | 0.4% | -3.4% | Hyperliquid |
| XMR | 0.0100% | 0.0096% | 0.4% | 2.7% | Lighter |
| XPL | 0.0100% | 0.0096% | 0.4% | 19.2% | Lighter |
| SUI | 0.0100% | 0.0096% | 0.4% | -3.2% | Hyperliquid |
| AAVE | 0.0085% | 0.0096% | -1.2% | -1.6% | Hyperliquid |
| LINK | 0.0100% | -0.0256% | 39.0% | 8.2% | Lighter |
| STRK | 0.0192% | 0.0096% | 10.5% | 6.7% | Lighter |
| TAO | 0.0100% | 0.0096% | 0.4% | 2.6% | Lighter |
| BNB | -0.0028% | -0.0104% | 8.3% | -3.4% | Hyperliquid |
| MON | 0.0100% | 0.0096% | 0.4% | -3.1% | Hyperliquid |
| ONDO | 0.0100% | -0.0008% | 11.8% | -0.6% | Hyperliquid |
Positive difference: funding is higher on Hyperliquid. All 98 shared tokens are in the funding hub; the gaps ranked by size are on the arbitrage page.
Where they differ in practice
- Cost to trade. Hyperliquid: Base tier (tier 0). Fees fall with 14-day rolling volume down to 0.024% taker / 0% maker at >$7B; staking tiers (Wood to Diamond) discount further. Maker rebates at tier 4+. Lighter: Standard accounts trade all markets with zero maker and taker fees, with 300 ms taker latency. Premium/Advanced accounts pay 0.004% maker / 0.028% taker (discounted up to 30% by staking LIT) for lower latency; Plus accounts pay 0.5 bps for higher rate limits.
- Funding cadence. Hyperliquid: Every hour, at 1/8 of the computed 8-hour rate. Lighter: Every hour; the 1-hour premium is divided by 8 so the premium is spread over 8 hours. The same 8h-equivalent rate costs the same over 8 hours, but hourly settlement spreads the cash flow and lets you exit between payments more finely.
- Market list. 80 markets exist only on Hyperliquid and 115 only on Lighter in this snapshot; Lighter's exclusives are mostly stocks, FX, indices and commodities, Aster's are long-tail crypto pairs, Hyperliquid's are HIP-3 and newer listings.