Lighter has come under scrutiny after on-chain data showed large token allocations to major market participants.
Lighter awarded more than $24M in LIT tokens to Jump Crypto during its airdrop period, raising fairness concerns.
The airdrop followed months of point farming tied to trading activity on the platform. Data suggests large players captured a sizeable share of community tokens during early distribution.
Market maker rewards dominate allocations
Lighter allocated over $24M worth of LIT tokens to Jump Crypto for market-making activity starting in November. Wallet data shows Jump Crypto received 323,956 LIT as fees.
Before that, the firm was assigned 9,284,890 LIT as liquidity support. This amount equals about 0.93% of the total supply and 3.72% of the circulating supply.
Market makers are often used to support liquidity on new exchanges. However, the scale of the allocation raised questions about the token distribution balance.
Jump Crypto has played similar roles across other derivatives platforms. The firm was also an early and large participant in Hyperliquid activity.
Whale wallets linked to community airdrop
Lighter assigned 25% of its total supply to the community with immediate unlocks. Team and strategic allocations remained vested at launch.
On-chain researchers identified wallet clusters that received large shares of community tokens. One group controlled around $26M in LIT after the airdrop.
Another cluster was linked directly to Jump Crypto and related entities. These wallets farmed points through heavy trading activity.
High trading incentives allowed whales to scale participation easily. Smaller users struggled to match the required volume.
As a result, a large portion of circulating tokens ended up in a limited number of wallets.
Price discovery faces early pressure
Lighter launched LIT as a revenue-sharing token inspired by HYPE. The token reached a high of $2.82 shortly after trading began.
Since then, LIT has slipped to the $2.50 range during price discovery. Early selling pressure reflected concerns over distribution and demand.
Some traders feared LIT could follow the decline seen in XPL. Derivatives data show limited open interest so far.
Only five major traders are active on Hyperliquid markets. Two hold profitable short positions, while three remain long.
Lighter has hinted at a possible Coinbase listing, which could improve liquidity and visibility.
Recent data shows platform fees fell sharply in December. Daily revenue dropped from $1.39M to about $139K.
The exchange surpassed Aster in daily volume but must now prove sustainable growth. Future performance will depend on organic demand beyond whales and incentives.
