Lighter vs Aster
174 shared markets. Funding is higher on Lighter for 67 and on Aster for 107, mean -0.0005% per 8h. On 7-day averages a long was cheaper on Lighter.
Side by side
| Lighter | Aster | |
|---|---|---|
| Perp markets (snapshot) | 213 | 578 |
| Open interest (snapshot) | $530.8M | — |
| 24h volume (snapshot) | $1.98B | $1.05B |
| Maker fee (base) | 0% | 0% |
| Taker fee (base) | 0% | 0.04% |
| Funding interval | Every hour; the 1-hour premium is divided by 8 so the premium is spread over 8 hours | Per market: 1, 2, 4 or 8 hours (at the time of writing 98 markets on 1h, 362 on 4h, 323 on 8h) |
| Interest component | Per-market fixed interest rate component (the BTC market publishes 0.0032 as base interest rate in its market config) | 0.01% per 8 hours (0% for BNBUSDT) |
| Premium clamp | 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 | clamp(interest − premium, −0.05%, +0.05%); premium index calculated every 5 s; funding fee cap/floor ±2% per market |
| Chain | Lighter zk-rollup (Ethereum L2) with verifiable matching | Multi-chain (BNB Chain, Ethereum, Solana, Arbitrum deposits); order book "Pro" mode and on-chain "Simple" mode |
| Accounts | Three account types: Standard (free), Plus (0.5 bps, more rate limit), Premium/Advanced (fee-paying, 140 ms taker latency). | VIP program lowers taker fees by volume; maker fee is 0 across tiers. |
| Referral program | 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. | Default 10% commission on referred users' fees, splittable with the referee as a discount; approved affiliates get 20% on VIP 1 referees. Paid daily. |
| Builder / integrator fees | 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. | Aster Code: builders earn a fee on trades routed through their own interface; requires ≥100 ASTER held in the builder's perps account; users approve the agent and the maximum builder fee once. |
Aster open interest is not totalled because its API reports it per market; see the Aster page.
Funding on shared markets (top 25 by open interest)
| Token | Lighter 8h | Aster 8h | Difference APR | 7d avg diff APR | Cheaper long |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BTC | 0.0096% | 0.0100% | -0.4% | 1.5% | Aster |
| ETH | 0.0096% | 0.0066% | 3.3% | -1.4% | Lighter |
| HYPE | 0.0048% | 0.0100% | -5.7% | -1.3% | Lighter |
| SOL | 0.0008% | 0.0025% | -1.9% | -0.7% | Lighter |
| ZEC | 0.0096% | 0.0100% | -0.4% | 1.4% | Aster |
| NEAR | 0.0096% | 0.0100% | -0.4% | -0.3% | Lighter |
| XRP | 0.0096% | -0.0011% | 11.7% | -10.3% | Lighter |
| PUMP | 0.0096% | 0.0100% | -0.4% | -0.4% | Lighter |
| LIT | 0.0000% | 0.0100% | -10.9% | -2.9% | Lighter |
| DOGE | 0.0096% | -0.0013% | 12.0% | 5.7% | Aster |
| ENA | 0.0096% | 0.0100% | -0.4% | -0.4% | Lighter |
| ZRO | 0.0096% | 0.0100% | -0.4% | 10.5% | Aster |
| WLD | 0.0096% | 0.0100% | -0.4% | 1.0% | Aster |
| UNI | 0.0096% | 0.0100% | -0.4% | -4.8% | Lighter |
| VVV | 0.0096% | 0.0100% | -0.4% | 8.6% | Aster |
| XMR | 0.0096% | 0.0100% | -0.4% | -7.8% | Lighter |
| XPL | 0.0096% | 0.0100% | -0.4% | -16.6% | Lighter |
| SUI | 0.0096% | 0.0100% | -0.4% | -0.4% | Lighter |
| AAVE | 0.0096% | 0.0100% | -0.4% | -0.7% | Lighter |
| LINK | -0.0256% | 0.0100% | -39.0% | -11.2% | Lighter |
| STRK | 0.0096% | 0.0100% | -0.4% | 1.3% | Aster |
| TAO | 0.0096% | 0.0100% | -0.4% | -3.1% | Lighter |
| BNB | -0.0104% | 0.0000% | -11.4% | 7.9% | Aster |
| MON | 0.0096% | 0.0100% | -0.4% | 5.2% | Aster |
| ONDO | -0.0008% | 0.0100% | -11.8% | -1.8% | Lighter |
Positive difference: funding is higher on Lighter. All 174 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. 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. Aster: Crypto "General" pairs: 0% maker / 0.04% taker at VIP 0. "Group B" pairs: 0.1% taker. RWA pairs: 1.25 bps taker. USD1-quoted contracts follow the same split.
- Funding cadence. Lighter: Every hour; the 1-hour premium is divided by 8 so the premium is spread over 8 hours. Aster: Per market: 1, 2, 4 or 8 hours (at the time of writing 98 markets on 1h, 362 on 4h, 323 on 8h). 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. 39 markets exist only on Lighter and 404 only on Aster 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.