Lighter Crypto Project Founder Interview Breakdown — Next Big DeFi Perp DEX?

Is Lighter going to be the next perpetual Dex to take off like Aster did or Avantis? Well, that's yet to be seen, but the founder just dropped major alpha in an interview. Here's what you missed. >> Most people have already heard the hype about Lighter, but few know the real story behind it. The decentralized perpetual decks that could rival NYX, Avantis, and Aster. projects in the perpetual deck space that have been catching some serious gains in the crypto space. Now, on Corey Hoffstein's Flirting with Models podcast, Lighter's founder, Vladimir Novakovski, hopefully I say all those names right, shared details about the tech liquidity risk, and the vision that you won't find on the website. Today, I'm going to break down some of the most important gems from that interview and why lighter could be one of the most serious

challengers in this space. And the token is not out yet. information is scarce. Real quick before we hop into the interview, let's talk about Corey who's doing the interview real now. He is a chief investment officer of Newfound Research. Also one of the sharpest voices in quantitative investing. His podcast flirting with models has over a 100 episodes and a 4.9 out of five rating and is widely respected in the traditional finance and quant circles. So when we say quant, we mean quantum uh and quantum investing more specifically. And the the real takeaway here is he is widely respected in traditional finance, right? So when Corey brings on Vladimir Novakovski, the founder of Lighter to talk, that's a big deal. This isn't just another hype video done by some kind of crypto influencer. It's a signal that serious researchers are

paying attention to lighter. So who is building Lighter, right? Vladimir Novakovski isn't just another DeFi founder. He really sharpened his skills at Citadel early highfrequency trading desk and then built another highfrequency trading business inside another hedge fund. Later moved to Silicon Valley and started working for an AI plus fintech startup. In 2022, he pivoted his team away from AI to crypto with backing from supportive investors. That pivot was driven by one simple question. Why are decentralized assets still traded on centralized exchanges? Which is a great question. Every great product should solve a problem, right? So, what problem is Lighter trying to solve? Well, 99% of crypto assets were traded centrally. FTX collapse really proved the risk in this space. Vlad's mission became to build an exchange with the speed of centralized trading, but with an onchain transparency and verifiability.

Think of a centralized exchange performance mixed with the DeFi security. Now, instead of another automated market maker, Lighter is a is an order-based perpetual decentralized exchange designed for highfrequency trading, low latency, and self-custody. The self-custody aspect, I think, is really big, and we will come back to that in a minute. If you saw my previous video, we refer to it as the exit hatch. Lighter's technical edge built as a custom Ethereum layer 2. It uses zero knowledge circuits but not for privacy but for succinct proofs that compress thousands of trades into one short proof. Escape hatch that we mentioned earlier is if the sequencer fails, funds can be withdrawn directly from Ethereum layer 1. Think if FTX had this structure, everybody would have been able to withdraw their funds from the exchange and the whole narrative around it would

be totally different. Now, this isn't an experimental design. It took them 18 months to solve the hard problems. First, like scalable data structures to prevent state growth bottlenecks. And key innovations are their custom tree structures that both store order books and generate Merkel proofs efficiently. AM pools. Lighter uses liquidity provider pool LLP model similar to GMX or Hyperlid, but unlike others, the protocol team seated it with just $100,000. and the community grew it past 100 million total value locked organically. There's a very good distinction there. They're adding XLP, which is experimental liquidity pools for riskier markets like pre-launch coins plus RWAS, keeping core liquidity safe. Now, one gem from this interview is that Vlad admitted early on Lighter was manipulated when liquidity was deeper on smaller per than Binance spot, but they made the LPS whole and rebuilt the

model. So we don't have to worry about that anymore. Right now LLP still supplies 80% of the liquidity. But with 40 to 50 market makers on board, that dominance will shrink, pushing lighter closer to professional market depth. So the business model, no fees for retail traders. Pros like highfrequency traders pay for premium access plus latency. This is inspired by Robin Hood's model and Corey Hoffstein was an early advisor over there. So Vlad's logic, retail is the lifeblood, so make it free. Pros will always show up if there's money to be made. Security, risk, and a reality check. Some critics say Lighter isn't fully decentralized because it has a private sequencer. But keep in mind, no decentralized sequencer really exists. And Vlad's response, decentralization isn't the goal. Verifiability is. ZK proofs means it doesn't really matter who runs the sequencer.

If the math doesn't check out, Ethereum will reject it. If compromised, users, you can always use the escape hatch back to the layer one, which is Ethereum. Audits, bug catchers, and private beta and live trading are already battle tested the system. So, is lighter the next, Aster, or Avantis? Well, it might be, but with serious highfrequency trader talent, 100 million plus organic liquidity, and battle tested ZK roll-up design, Lighter is positioning itself as the backbone for onchain trading. But remember, this isn't financial advice. Always do your own research. And if you found this breakdown useful, hit that like, subscribe, and let me know down in the comments. Are you bullish on Lighter? Now, we do go deep dive research Monday through Friday, 8:00 PM New York time. Come check it out and raise your crypto IQ with us. Join

the community. [Music]