#ETF与衍生品 Recently, Lighter's TGE discussion has completely ignited the community. Watching the intense clash of opinions between the two factions, I realize that what this actually reflects is a more fundamental question: **What does the future of on-chain derivatives look like?**

On the surface, Lighter and Hyperliquid seem to be competing for the same market, but a deeper analysis reveals that their differences are far greater than imagined. Lighter's zero-fee model appears generous, but in reality, it is a clever design of "exchanging money for time"—providing retail traders with an equal experience of 300 milliseconds execution delay, while charging market makers for a no-latency channel. This is not a gimmick, but a genuine understanding of the different needs of various traders.

What excites me even more is its technical architecture. As an Ethereum L2, Lighter leverages ZK technology to achieve "bridge-less cross-chain" and "universal full-collateral margin"—users can hold stETH on the mainnet to earn staking rewards while using it as collateral to open contracts on L2. This **capital efficiency stacking** is the most illustrative solution I’ve seen to demonstrate the advantages of DeFi composability. In comparison, Hyperliquid’s application chain, while powerful in performance, indeed faces a ceiling in cross-chain trust assumptions and liquidity fragmentation.

However, I won’t deny the risks—user retention after TGE is often a litmus test. A wave of incentives receding could lead to a drop in trading volume, which is a curse almost all new projects face. But Lighter is backed by traditional financial giants like Robinhood and Citadel. If this "iron triangle" truly forms a closed loop, it’s not competing with on-chain existing users, but with the millions of retail investors in US stocks entering crypto as new users.

This Perp DEX revolution has just begun. No matter how Lighter ultimately performs, it and Hyperliquid are jointly breaking an old order—on-chain derivatives really have a chance to challenge the dominance of centralized exchanges. That’s why I believe in the long-term value of this track.