Side-by-side comparison of two perpetual futures exchanges — updated in real time.
Lighter and GMX v2 represent fundamentally different perp DEX designs. Lighter is a fee-free on-chain orderbook on Ethereum L2, while GMX v2 is an oracle-based pool system on Arbitrum with multi-collateral support.
Lighter charges zero trading fees across its 153-market on-chain orderbook with up to 20x leverage. GMX v2 uses Chainlink oracle-priced isolated GM pools on Arbitrum with 113 markets, up to 100x leverage, and notably higher fees at 0.04% maker / 0.06% taker. The fee gap is significant: on a $50,000 trade, you'd pay $0 on Lighter versus $30 on GMX v2 as a taker. However, GMX v2 offers 5x more leverage (100x vs 20x), which is crucial for capital-efficient strategies. GMX v2's multi-collateral support (USDC, USDT, ETH, BTC) provides flexibility that Lighter's USDC-only model can't match. GMX v2's oracle model guarantees execution at market price with zero slippage within pool capacity, while Lighter's orderbook execution depends on available liquidity depth. GMX v2 benefits from Arbitrum's deep DeFi ecosystem and years of battle-testing. Lighter is newer but disrupts the space by proving that zero-fee perpetual trading is viable.
Choose Lighter to eliminate trading fees entirely, ideal for cost-sensitive or high-frequency strategies. Choose GMX v2 for higher leverage (100x), multi-asset collateral, zero-slippage oracle execution, and Arbitrum's DeFi composability.
