Both are on-chain perpetuals exchanges with an order book and hourly funding. They differ in fees, leverage, what they list and how they are built. Here is the comparison, from each venue’s own documentation and API.
Lighter is cheaper on paper: its default Standard account pays no maker or taker fee, and its top leverage is 50x on seven markets. Its list mixes crypto with currencies, stocks, indices and commodities. Hyperliquid charges a base fee of 0.015% maker and 0.045% taker and tops out at 40x (BTC). It runs its own layer 1 chain, with the perpetual and spot order books in HyperCore. Its main list is crypto; stocks, indices and gold trade there on markets that other teams deploy.
The “zero fees” has a catch, covered below: it applies to Standard accounts only, and their taker orders wait 300 ms. The paid Lighter tiers have fees of their own.
| Lighter | Hyperliquid | |
|---|---|---|
| Built as | Ethereum layer 2 with zero-knowledge proofs of order matching and liquidations | Its own layer 1 chain (HyperBFT consensus) with HyperCore order books |
| Margin | USDC | USDC |
| Base fees | Standard: 0 maker, 0 taker. Premium: 0.0040% / 0.0280% | 0.015% maker, 0.045% taker (volume tier 0) |
| Funding | Every hour, peer to peer, no exchange fee | Every hour, peer to peer, no exchange fee |
| Highest max leverage | 50x (7 markets, including BTC and ETH) | 40x (BTC) |
| Active perpetuals | 213 (29 Oct 2026) | 179 on the main list (29 Oct 2026) |
| Non-crypto perps | Yes: currencies, stocks, indices, commodities | On markets other teams deploy (HIP-3): stocks, indices, gold. The main list is crypto |
Hyperliquid’s fees are set by your rolling 14-day volume, assessed at the end of each UTC day. The base tier pays 0.045% taker and 0.015% maker on perpetuals. At the top tier (above $7B), it is 0.024% taker and 0.000% maker. Staking HYPE discounts these by 5% to 40%. For the full schedule see Hyperliquid fees explained.
Lighter sets fees by account type, not volume:
| Lighter account | Maker | Taker | Taker delay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard (default) | 0 | 0 | 300 ms |
| Plus (opt-in) | 0.005% | 0.005% | 300 ms |
| Premium (opt-in) | 0.0040% | 0.0280% | 140 ms |
Standard accounts pay 1 basis point (0.01%) on TWAP and advanced orders and RFQ. Premium accounts can cut their fee 2.5% to 30% by staking LIT. Lighter’s documentation lists these for its main deployment; a second schedule for Lighter on Robinhood Chain is different and is not covered here.
Using the base rates above: Hyperliquid $4.50 (0.045%), Lighter Standard $0, Lighter Plus $0.50, Lighter Premium $2.80. This is our arithmetic from the published rates. It leaves out funding, spread, slippage and any fee an app adds on top. Apps built on either venue can add their own fee of up to 0.1% on perpetuals (a builder fee on Hyperliquid, an integrator fee on Lighter); on Lighter, only Plus and Premium accounts can be charged one. See Hyperliquid builder fees by app for what is charged in practice.
Both venues pay funding every hour, and both compute an 8-hour rate from a premium index, then pay one eighth of it each hour. A positive rate means longs pay shorts.
Both start from the same 0.01% interest rate, but Lighter’s documented cap per hour is lower than Hyperliquid’s. See every Hyperliquid perp’s live rate on the Hyperliquid funding table; on a chart, the terminal’s funding pane combines Lighter’s rate with every other venue that lists the coin.
Lighter’s API on 29 October 2026 showed 50x on seven markets: BTC, ETH, EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDJPY, SPY and US500. The other 206 run from 30x down to 3x: 30x on two (QQQ and US100), 25x on nine, 20x on 25, 15x on five, 10x on 84, 8x on three, 5x on 46 and 3x on 32. Hyperliquid’s main list runs from 40x down to 3x: BTC 40x, ETH 25x, SOL and XRP 20x, then 30 markets at 10x, 56 at 5x and 89 at 3x. See Hyperliquid max leverage for every perp, including the margin tiers that lower BTC to 20x above $150M of position size.
For the coins both list, the maximum on 29 October 2026:
| Coin | Lighter | Hyperliquid |
|---|---|---|
| BTC | 50x | 40x |
| ETH | 50x | 25x |
| SOL | 25x | 20x |
| XRP | 20x | 20x |
| HYPE | 20x | 10x |
Higher leverage means less room before liquidation: a position opened at the maximum sits close to its liquidation price. Use the Hyperliquid calculator to see where a position would liquidate.
Both list BTC, ETH, SOL and HYPE perpetuals. Lighter’s list is the longer one, 213 active perpetuals on 29 October 2026, and it goes well beyond crypto: currencies such as EURUSD and USDJPY, stocks such as TSLA and NVDA, the US500 and US100 indexes, and commodities such as gold, silver and oil. The Lighter charts page shows them live. Hyperliquid’s main list has 179 perpetuals, all crypto tokens (PAXG tracks gold), plus spot markets. Stocks, indices and currencies trade on Hyperliquid too, on markets that other teams deploy under its HIP-3 standard: the largest of them listed 119 on 29 October, from TSLA and NVDA to gold. The counts on this page leave those out.
Hyperliquid describes itself as a layer 1 blockchain written from first principles, using a custom consensus algorithm called HyperBFT, with fully on-chain perpetual and spot order books in HyperCore. Lighter describes itself as the first exchange to offer verifiable order matching and liquidations: its Core combines succinct execution proofs with Ethereum as the anchoring layer, a sequencer orders transactions first in, first out, and users can enter or exit directly through Ethereum.
Lighter’s terms exclude people in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, China, North Korea, Russia, Ukraine, Cuba, Iran, Venezuela and Syria, and any sanctioned jurisdiction. The site’s desktop banner adds Sudan, Belarus and Myanmar. We have not compared Hyperliquid’s own restrictions, so read each venue’s current terms before you use it.
Fees and leverage are on paper; prices, depth and funding are live. WatchCrypto streams both venues into one free terminal, so you can open Lighter BTC next to Hyperliquid BTC, with an order book and trade tape each, and see the spread and depth difference yourself. The Hyperliquid page covers charting and trading there; Lighter is charts and data only. Hyperliquid’s open interest by coin is live too. For laying out several venues at once, see multi-exchange trading.
Usually, yes. Lighter's default Standard account pays no maker or taker fee on regular orders, with a 300 ms delay on taker orders. Its opt-in Premium account pays 0.0040% maker and 0.0280% taker, against Hyperliquid's base rate of 0.015% maker and 0.045% taker. Hyperliquid's fee falls with 14-day volume and HYPE staking.
Only for Standard accounts, and only on regular orders. Lighter's documentation says Standard accounts pay no maker or taker fees, but 1 basis point (0.01%) on TWAP and advanced orders and RFQ. Standard taker orders also wait 300 ms. Plus and Premium accounts pay fees.
Lighter: 50x on seven markets, including BTC and ETH. Hyperliquid's highest is 40x, on BTC. Checked against each venue's API on 29 October 2026.
Both charge funding every hour. Each computes an 8-hour rate from a premium index and pays one eighth of it each hour.
Yes. WatchCrypto charts Lighter and Hyperliquid side by side with live order books and trade tapes, for free and without an account. Trading from the chart is available on Hyperliquid; Lighter is charts and data only.
orderBookDetails, fetched 29 October 2026 at 10:39 UTC.meta and perpDexs, fetched 29 October 2026.WatchCrypto is not affiliated with Lighter or Hyperliquid. Fees and limits change; check each venue before you trade. Leveraged trading can lose more than you expect; this guide is not financial advice.