Lighter’s Lit Tokenomics Split Defi As Polymarket Bets Top $74m
Lighter’s LIT token launch sparked debate over insider ownership, while prediction markets and whale trades revealed divided expectations regarding valuation.
Lighter, one of the fastest-growing perpetual decentralized exchanges (DEXs), drew mixed reactions in the decentralized finance (DeFi) community after unveiling the tokenomics of its new Lighter Infrastructure Token (LIT).
Under its structure, 50% of LIT’s supply is reserved for the ecosystem, while the remaining 50% is allocated to the team and investors, with a one-year cliff and a multi-year vesting schedule.
As part of the rollout, Lighter said it had already distributed 25% of LIT’s total supply through an airdrop tied to its first two points seasons, which ran throughout 2025.
The program yielded 12.5 million points, which were converted into LIT and distributed to eligible users at launch. The other 25% of the ecosystem allocation will be reserved for future points, seasons, partnerships and growth incentives.
“The team and investors all have a 1-year unlock and 3-year linear vesting after,” Lighter wrote. “The breakdown is 26% team, 24% investor.”
The protocol’s decision to split token allocation evenly between the ecosystem and insiders saw mixed reactions on social media, with some praising the transparency while others labeling the move as “wild.”
Lighter is one of the top perpetuals DEXs in the DeFi space. DefiLlama data shows that the platform recorded nearly $200 billion in perpetuals trading volume in the last 30 days, surpassing rivals like Hyperliquid and Aster.
Reactions to LIT’s tokenomics varied across the crypto community on X. Critics focused on the 50% allocation to team and investors, calling it excessive for a DeFi-native project and warning that insider-heavy supply structures often lead to sharp post-launch selloffs.
Others pushed back on what they described as reflexive “FUD,” arguing that large-scale infrastructure does not get built without meaningful investor backing and that the long vesting schedules mitigate immediate downside risk.
Source: CoinTelegraph
