Backpack vs Lighter Comparison
| 0.02% maker / 0.05% taker | Fees | Free for standard accounts; premium 0.004% / 0.028% |
Backpack
vs
LighterWinner
Pros & Cons
Pros
- MiCA authorisation for the European entity, passported across the EU
- Perpetuals for EU clients through an entity under MiFID II supervision
- A named European supervisory counterparty
- Clean, approachable interface
- 200+ markets in the global offering
Cons
- EU clients limited to roughly 40 pairs and 10x leverage
- Fees above the fee-free competitors
- Not a pure DEX — execution runs on operator-run order-book infrastructure
- Account with identity verification required
Pros
- Fee-free trading for standard accounts
- Execution and liquidations verifiable via zero-knowledge proofs
- Anchored to Ethereum with an escape hatch if the sequencer misbehaves
- Order types including TWAP and conditional orders
- No KYC
Cons
- Pseudonymous team, no publicly stated place of business
- No EU authorisation
- Young platform — mainnet only since October 2025
- Support runs through community channels
Score Comparison
4.6Usability4.6
4.0Features4.6
4.2Fees5.0
4.2Stability4.4
4.0Support3.5
Features
- One of the few perpetual venues with EU authorisation
- MiCA CASP since May 2026
- Perpetuals for EU clients since September 2025
- Solana-native infrastructure
- Fee-free trading for standard accounts
- Application-specific zk-rollup rather than a general-purpose chain
- Cryptographically verifiable matching
- Discount through LIT staking
Details
BackpackLighter
| Backpack Exchange (Coral) | Company | Lighter Labs |
| United Arab Emirates | Headquarters | Unknown (Team Pseudonymous) |