Extended vs Lighter Comparison
| 0% maker / 0.025% taker | Fees | Free for standard accounts; premium 0.004% / 0.028% |
Cost comparison
The basis is a Bitcoin purchase worth €1,000, including all fees and spreads.
| 0% maker / 0.025% taker | Fees | Free for standard accounts; premium 0.004% / 0.028% |
Pros & Cons
- 0% maker fee, 0.025% taker
- Daily maker rebates based on maker share
- Very low network fees on Starknet
- Unified margin across several asset classes
- Self-custody
- Considerably smaller than the market leaders
- Around 50 trading pairs — a narrower list than competitors
- No EU authorisation
- Support runs through community channels
- 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
- 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
Features
- Fee-free on the maker side
- Team with Revolut roots
- Cross-asset collateral and unified margin
- Network costs in the cents range
- Fee-free trading for standard accounts
- Application-specific zk-rollup rather than a general-purpose chain
- Cryptographically verifiable matching
- Discount through LIT staking
The five areas head to head
AI AnalysisFees & Costs
Makers pay no trading fee, takers 0.025%. Depending on 30-day maker share, daily rebates of up to 2 basis points apply on top. Network fees on Starknet typically run to a few cents per transaction and barely register against the trading fee. As of August 2026.
Standard accounts trade without fees as both maker and taker. Premium accounts pay 0.004% maker and 0.028% taker, with up to 30% off through LIT staking. Heavily automated strategies may face different terms. No separate per-trade network fee applies inside the rollup. As of August 2026.
Usability & User Experience
The interface is functional and aimed at users with futures experience. Access runs through a wallet connection. As of August 2026.
The interface is built around order-book trading and aimed at users with futures experience. Access is by wallet connection with no registration step. As of August 2026.
Features & Offering
Extended runs more than 50 perpetual pairs and adds spot and lending markets. Collateral can be deployed across asset classes and margin is unified at account level. Alongside standard order types there are TP/SL brackets that set target and stop together. As of August 2026.
More than 120 perpetual markets trade through a central limit order book. Alongside market, limit, stop-loss and take-profit orders there is TWAP execution and conditional orders. Technically decisive is the escape hatch to Ethereum: users can withdraw funds even if the sequencer stops behaving correctly. As of August 2026.
Details
| Extended Finance | Company | Lighter Labs |
| Unknown (Decentralised team) | Headquarters | Unknown (Team Pseudonymous) |
Verdict
In our overall rating Lighter leads with 4.9 against 4.4 for Extended.
For most investors Lighter is therefore the better choice.
Extended was built by a team with a Revolut background and runs on Starknet mainnet. The product promise goes beyond plain perpetuals: collateral can be used across asset classes, margin is unified, and spot and lending markets round out the offering.
On price Extended leads: makers pay nothing, takers 0.025%, with daily maker rebates depending on maker share. Network fees on Starknet run to a few cents per transaction, so total costs stay low even for frequent trading.
Scale needs stating plainly: measured by capital locked, Extended is far smaller than Hyperliquid or Lighter, and the market list covers roughly 50 pairs. The platform holds no EU authorisation; perpetuals sit outside MiCA in any case, and tax reporting rests entirely with the user.
Lighter takes a technically distinct route: the exchange runs as an application-specific zk-rollup whose only job is to operate a central limit order book for perpetuals, anchored to Ethereum. Every match, risk check and liquidation is proven with zero-knowledge proofs, so users can verify correctness rather than trust the operator.
On price, Lighter is currently hard to beat: standard accounts trade without trading fees, premium accounts pay 0.004% maker and 0.028% taker, with a further discount through LIT staking. Since mainnet launch in October 2025 the platform has climbed sharply on volume.
The trade-offs are real: the team is pseudonymous and the venue holds no EU authorisation. The platform holds no EU authorisation; perpetuals sit outside MiCA in any case, and tax reporting rests entirely with the user. For traders who want fee-free, verifiable execution and knowingly accept the regulatory uncertainty, this is currently the sharpest value proposition in the segment.