Lighter, one of the largest decentralized perpetuals exchanges by trading volume, said it will start permanently burning the $LIT tokens it buys back with exchange revenue and will fund staking rewards from its ecosystem token reserve.
Lighter has bought back about 15.5 million $LIT — roughly 6.3% of circulating supply — using exchange revenue since its token generation event, the company said in an X post Tuesday. Those tokens will now be withdrawn from the exchange and sent to a burn address on Ethereum mainnet, with the first burn set for the weeks after the end of the second quarter.
Separately, Lighter will begin paying staking rewards from its remaining ecosystem tokens, targeting an initial 6% annualized yield. With about 125 million $LIT staked, that yield would distribute roughly 7.5 million $LIT a year from a remaining reserve of 250 million.
The changes pull in two directions on supply. Burning bought-back tokens removes them from circulation, while paying staking yield from the reserve releases tokens that were not yet circulating, partly offsetting the burns. The update also answers requests from holders for clarity on what happens to the $LIT the protocol repurchases, a recurring question across perpetuals exchanges that run buybacks.
Lighter briefly overtook Hyperliquid in monthly perpetuals volume around its December launch, when airdrop incentives pulled traders to its zero-fee order book. Activity has since cooled as those incentives wound down, which puts more weight on whether the token’s economics can sustain demand on their own.
$LIT rose about 2% over 24 hours and is up roughly 20% over the past week and about 39% over the past 30 days, outpacing Bitcoin, which fell almost 3% over the past day and about 20% over the past month, according to CoinGecko. The token trades near $1.84, about 77% below its record high. Its market capitalization is around $461 million; its fully diluted valuation, which counts the full one billion token supply against the 250 million now circulating, is roughly $1.84 billion.
Buybacks Become Burns
Lighter had been buying $LIT on the open market with exchange revenue since its token launch at the end of December, but had not committed to destroying the tokens. It said Tuesday that the buybacks will now reduce supply permanently through burns, executed by sending $LIT to an Ethereum burn address.
The exchange flagged one mechanical caveat: the tokens it burns may be undistributed $LIT rather than the exact tokens it repurchased, an approach it said is economically equivalent for holders and cheaper to administer.
The buybacks are funded by trading activity. Lighter has generated about $2.87 million in protocol revenue over the past 30 days and roughly $53 million since launch, according to DefiLlama.
Continued Exchange Revenue
The burn program depends on continued exchange revenue to fund the buybacks, and revenue has been modest relative to the token’s valuation.
Funding staking from the 250 million-token reserve also draws down a finite pool; that reserve could deplete faster if revenue weakens or staking participation climbs, and the 6% target is not fixed.
Lighter said it will execute the first burn in the weeks after the close of the second quarter, a milestone holders will be able to verify onchain.
Staking Shifts to the Reserve
Lighter launched its staking program in January and has distributed about 3.72 million $LIT to stakers so far, including roughly 170,000 $LIT from a fee-credits program.
Those rewards were bootstrapped with pre-launch revenue while exchange income was directed entirely toward buybacks. Effective immediately, the protocol will instead draw on ecosystem tokens, which it said is a more aligned use because the rewards flow to holders with the longest time horizons.
The targeted 6% yield is denominated in $LIT and can be adjusted at the team’s discretion based on market conditions, protocol performance and sustainability, Lighter said. At about 125 million $LIT staked, roughly half of circulating supply is committed to the program.
Lighter laid out four priorities for managing its treasury going forward: rewarding long-term stakers, reducing supply through burns, preserving tokens for future partnerships and growth programs, and stewarding the reserve for long-term value. The company said its ecosystem tokens exist to grow the protocol, deepen liquidity and reward users.
