Perpetual Futures on zkLighter

zkLighter is the application-specific ZK rollup underlying Lighter. It is not an Arbitrum deployment. Lighter Core processes order-book state, while proofs, state commitments, and transaction data are anchored to Ethereum.

Lighter and the zero-fee model

Lighter publishes a 0% maker and 0% taker tier for standard accounts. Premium accounts pay for lower processing latency, with LIT-staking discounts. The official API returned 205 active perpetual markets when checked on August 11, 2026, with leverage up to 50x depending on the market. Funding, spread, and market impact remain separate costs.

For active traders, zero trading fees shift the focus to execution quality and spread. PerpFinder tracks Lighter's volume and we observe it attracting a specific segment of traders who are sensitive to taker fees but are comfortable with the depth tradeoffs of a smaller venue compared to Hyperliquid.

What zkLighter adds

A ZK-proven settlement layer batches state transitions with a validity proof. Ethereum contracts verify the proof and hold the authoritative state commitment. This differs from an optimistic rollup's fraud-proof window, but it also introduces prover and sequencer dependencies during normal operation.

The Lighter architecture documentation describes the sequencer, prover, Ethereum contracts, data publication, and escape-hatch path.

Market position

zkLighter is a narrow-focus rollup built for Lighter's order book rather than a general-purpose application ecosystem. That gives the system a different trust and availability profile from both Hyperliquid's own Layer 1 and general-purpose Ethereum rollups.

The official security index publishes reports for components including Lighter Core, the EVM deposit bridge, wrapper, exit, and spot. Audit scope is component-specific and does not remove sequencer, bridge, prover, or frontend risk.

See Lighter's current volume, fee structure, and market list at /perps/lighter. For a side-by-side fee comparison across zero-fee and low-fee venues, use the cost comparison tool.