Who will dominate the perpetual DEX battlefield?

The answer might be simpler than everyone thinks. Strip away the noise—Lighter's core advantage is crystal clear: zero trading fees.

Here's the brutal math: in a mature market, all that volume migrates to where fees are lowest. It's not about fancy UI or being first-mover. It's about economics. When traders have identical trading conditions elsewhere but pay nothing on Lighter, the choice becomes obvious.

This isn't speculation. It's how markets work. Uniswap didn't win because it was perfect; it won because it was permissionless and efficient. Lighter is taking that same principle into perpetual derivatives—and removing the one thing that always bleeds profits: fees.

The perp DEX war will consolidate around whoever can sustain zero fees longest. Everyone else? They're just maintaining market share until that becomes impossible.