{"id":93265,"date":"2026-01-19T10:00:44","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T07:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=93265"},"modified":"2026-01-19T10:05:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T07:05:22","slug":"trading-volume-on-lighter-exchange-plummets-threefold-after-airdrop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/trading-volume-on-lighter-exchange-plummets-threefold-after-airdrop\/","title":{"rendered":"Trading Volume on Lighter Exchange Plummets Threefold After Airdrop"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The decentralized exchange Lighter, known for its perpetual contracts, is experiencing a sharp decline in activity. Hyperliquid has reclaimed its leadership in the segment, according to analysts at CryptoRank. <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Hyperliquid reclaims the perps throne<\/p>\n<p>As Lighter\u2019s airdrop is distributed, the platform\u2019s volumes have started to fade \u2013 weekly volume has decreased nearly 3x from its peak.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HyperliquidX?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@HyperliquidX<\/a> has captured the lead and is now ranked 1st by volume and open interest.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/variational_io?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@variational_io<\/a>\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/LChbSdaU8a\">pic.twitter.com\/LChbSdaU8a<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 CryptoRank.io (@CryptoRank_io) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CryptoRank_io\/status\/2012984604186001455?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 18, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>According to experts, Lighter&#8217;s trading volume over the past week amounted to $25.3 billion. For comparison, at its peak in mid-November, the figure reached $74.9 billion. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-a668a533ce5d15d1-4022211877820162.webp\" alt=\"<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"max-image preview:large\">&#8221; class=&#8221;wp-image-273559&#8243;\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/defillama.com\/protocol\/perps\/lighter-perps\">DefiLlama<\/a>. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>At the end of December, the platform <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/perp-dex-lighter-announces-airdrop-of-12-5-million-native-tokens\">conducted<\/a> an airdrop of LIT tokens worth $675 million. The event <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/lighter-airdrop-makes-cryptos-top-ten\">ranked<\/a> among the top ten largest <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-is-a-cryptocurrency-airdrop\">asset distributions<\/a> in the industry&#8217;s history, noted CoinGecko. <\/p>\n<p>Previously, the platform <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/lighter-exchange-introduces-mandatory-staking-for-liquidity-pool-access\">changed<\/a> its operating rules: it introduced mandatory staking for participation in liquidity pools and revised fees for <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-is-a-market-maker\">market makers<\/a> and <span data-descr=\"High Frequency Trading \u2014 high-frequency trading\" class=\"old_tooltip\">HFT<\/span> traders.<\/p>\n<p>Amid the decline in trading turnover on Lighter, Hyperliquid has once again taken the top spot among <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/perp-dex-old-tricks-new-tech\">perp-DEX<\/a>. The platform&#8217;s weekly trading volume exceeded $40.7 billion. Another competitor, Aster, recorded $31.7 billion. <\/p>\n<p>The total turnover of decentralized derivatives for January so far is $549 billion, still far from the October record of $1.3 trillion.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-0f3f76fbb8b3148b-4022236185880087.webp\" alt=\"<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"max-image preview:large\">&#8221; class=&#8221;wp-image-273560&#8243;\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/defillama.com\/perps\">DefiLlama<\/a>. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Hyperliquid&#8217;s leadership is also confirmed by open interest over the past 24 hours \u2014 $9.57 billion. The combined value of all other major platforms (Aster, Lighter, Variational, edgeX, Paradex) is about $7.34 billion.<\/p>\n<p>Back in November, former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/opinion-perpetual-dex-to-define-stock-prices-not-nasdaq\">predicted<\/a> a rise in the popularity of perp-DEX. <\/p>\n<p>In his view, by the end of 2026, the pricing of major American stocks will shift from traditional exchanges to the on-chain space: the market will begin to focus not on Nasdaq, but on perpetual contract charts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The decentralized exchange Lighter, known for its perpetual contracts, is experiencing a sharp decline in activity. Hyperliquid has reclaimed its leadership in the segment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":93266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"Lighter exchange sees sharp activity drop; Hyperliquid regains top spot.","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2365,787,1823],"class_list":["post-93265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-aster","tag-dex","tag-hyperliquid"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"190","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"Lighter exchange sees sharp activity drop; Hyperliquid regains top spot.","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93265"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93267,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93265\/revisions\/93267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}