dYdX vs Lighter

dYdX leads on 6 of 15 shared benchmarks, Lighter on 9. dYdX wins on Cheapest perp venue to hold a position, live funding normalized (0.82 bps vs 2.84 bps), Perp DEX cost invariance (2.46x vs 5.66x), Perp DEX mark price fidelity (0.020% vs 0.035%), Perp DEX capital efficiency (0.670 vs 0.276). Lighter wins on Cheapest perp DEX, live all-in cost from $1k to $1M on ETH, BTC and SOL (0.0022% vs 0.072%), Perp DEX volume share, live 24h notional ranked ($1.52B vs $45.52M), Perp DEX funding stability, 24h stddev of ETH funding ranked (0.0018% vs 0.036%), Perp DEX execution quality (0.0069% vs 0.069%). Data as of 2026-10-06 UTC.

Read methodology Last measured Window: rolling 24h15 shared benchmarks
dYdX logo
dYdX

Perp DEX on the dYdX Chain, a Cosmos SDK appchain. Orderbook with off-chain matching and onchain settlement, validators propagate orders via the mempool.

Lighter logo
Lighter

Onchain perp DEX with a fully onchain orderbook on a zkSync rollup. ZK proofs verify matching, no off-chain sequencer for trade execution.

Daily perp volume, head to head

Perpetual notional per closed UTC day, the DeFiLlama day buckets, read from each venue's own data. Ribbon under the bars marks which venue printed more that day.

Bench 266, all venues

7d lead

Lighter

$309M vs $13.03B

30d lead

Lighter

$1.22B vs $51.84B

Days led, last 30

0 / 30

dYdX / Lighter

Current streak

90 days

Lighter since Jul 8, 2026

dYdXLighter

UTC days, one side per trade

01.3B2.5B3.8B5BJul 8Oct 5lead

dYdX volume ÷ Lighter volume, week by week

The ratio of the two venues' seven-day perp volume, in percent; a window is shown only when both sides have every day closed. 100% is parity. The dashed line is the median of the weeks shown; the last window is the 7d tile above.

2.4% · week to 5 Oct · median 5.0%

dYdX ÷ Lighter, seven-day windows ending on the last closed day

0%50%100%median 5%22 Jun6 Jul20 Jul3 Aug17 Aug31 Aug14 Sep28 Sep5 Oct

29 Sep to 5 Oct

dYdX ÷ Lighter2.4%
vs median-2.6pt
= dYdX volume$308.7M
÷ Lighter volume$13.03B
WindowdYdXLighterdYdX / Lighter
Last closed day (Oct 5, 2026)$32.2M$2.13B2%
Last 7 days$309M$13.03B2%
Last 30 days$1.22B$51.84B2%

Sources: dYdX, dYdX v4 indexer 1DAY candles usdVolume summed over all perpetual markets. Lighter, Lighter 1d candles quote volume summed over perp markets (market_id < 2048), zkLighter mainnet + Robinhood chain deployment. Days where either venue has not closed are left blank rather than counted as zero. Last closed day common to both: Oct 5, 2026. Methodology and every venue on bench 266.

Side by side measurements

Cheapest perp venue to hold a position, live funding normalized

Trading

dYdX

Leads

0.82 bps

p99
~0 bps
rank
#4
samples
2,880

Lighter

Trails

2.84 bps

p99
2.47 bps
rank
#14
samples
2,880
Funding cost to hold a long 24h
dYdXn/aLightern/a

Funding is signed. Positive means longs pay shorts, negative means longs get paid to hold. Venues settle on different native periods (hourly on Hyperliquid, dYdX, Lighter, Extended, Pacifica, Ondo, Vest, StandX and ApeX, every 4h on edgeX, every 8h on Kalshi, Aster and the CEX books); every figure is normalized from the venue's own quoted rate and interval before ranking. Funding is only the holding cost. Opening costs (taker fee, spread, impact) are the companion bench perp-fees.

Rolling 24h · Funding cost to hold a long 24hRaw JSON

Perp DEX funding stability, 24h stddev of ETH funding ranked

Trading

dYdX

Trails

0.036 %

p99
0.00074%
rank
#16
samples
2,880

Lighter

Leads

0.0018 %

p99
0.010%
rank
#3
samples
2,880
24h ETH funding stddev
dYdXn/aLightern/a

Ranked only with 24 hours of funding history (288 samples) and a stddev above zero: a young listing, or a venue whose rate has not moved since listing (Ondo Perps at launch, Polymarket in July), reads artificially stable and shows as Provisional, never as the leader. Stability is not directionality: a persistently positive but tight band ranks above a rate that flips every settlement.

Rolling 24h · 24h ETH funding stddevRaw JSON

Perp DEX security track record: days without a recorded exploit, live

Trading

dYdX

Trails

1,102

p99
1,102
rank
#3
samples
2,880

Lighter

Leads

1,194

p99
1,194
rank
#2
samples
2,880
Days since last exploit
dYdXn/aLightern/a

This benchmark counts recorded incidents only. Absence from the registry does not prove a protocol is exploit-free: it means no incident matching the criteria (direct theft or loss of user funds via a security vulnerability) has been documented in the tracked sources as of the registry timestamp shown on each row. The registry is human-curated and updated when a new incident is confirmed. The registry date and source links are embedded in the harness.

Rolling 24h · Days since last exploitRaw JSON

Perp DEX asset breadth: non-crypto markets live, stocks + indices + forex + commodities

Trading

dYdX

Trails

2

p99
2
rank
#15
samples
2,880

Lighter

Leads

38

p99
38
rank
#11
samples
2,880
Non-crypto markets
dYdXn/aLightern/a

Counts reflect each venue's live market catalog at query time, mainnet only. The asset class comes from the venue's own metadata where it publishes one; Hyperliquid HIP-3 dexes and dYdX publish none, so their symbols are matched against the crypto markets the other venues list and a fixed table of forex, commodity and index names. Tokenized gold (PAXG, XAUT) is a crypto token and is not counted. A market counts once whether it trades 24/7 or only during exchange hours.

Rolling 24h · Non-crypto marketsRaw JSON

Perp DEX capital efficiency: active markets per $M TVL, live

Trading

dYdX

Leads

0.670

p99
0.670
rank
#10
samples
2,880

Lighter

Trails

0.276

p99
0.276
rank
#11
samples
2,880
Markets per $M TVL
dYdXn/aLightern/a

TVL from DefiLlama /protocol/{slug} currentChainTvls, excluding staking and pool2 categories. Market count from each venue's native API (same source as the perp-active-markets bench). The ratio reflects architectural choices, not absolute liquidity: a high ratio means the venue can list many markets cheaply, not that each market has deep liquidity. Compare with perp-volume-share for the liquidity angle.

Rolling 24h · Markets per $M TVLRaw JSON

Perp DEX token P/E ratio 2026: Hyperliquid, Lighter, GMX, dYdX, GNS live

Trading

dYdX

Leads

41.9x

p99
41.9x
rank
#5
samples
2,880

Lighter

Trails

70.5x

p99
70.5x
rank
#7
samples
2,880
P/E ratio
dYdXn/aLightern/a

P/E = fully diluted valuation (CoinGecko) divided by annualized protocol revenue (DeFiLlama dailyRevenue, 30-day trailing average x365). Protocol revenue = fees accruing to the treasury or token holders, not total user fees. Tokens without a CoinGecko listing show no P/E. FDV reflects total supply at current price, not circulating supply; tokens with large unvested allocations will show inflated FDV-based P/E. Updated hourly.

Perp DEX price to fees: what the market pays per dollar of trading fees

Trading
ProviderP/F ratioFDV / feesP/SFees 30dRevenue 30dFloatOpen interestFees / OI
dYdX37.0x41.9x37.0x$270.5K$270.5K88.3%$40.21M0.082x
Lighter14.9x59.6x17.6x$5.23M$4.41M25.0%$604.31M0.105x
View
dYdXn/aLightern/a

P/F = circulating market cap (CoinGecko) / annualized fees (DeFiLlama dailyFees, trailing 30d x 365/30), on the DeFiLlama parent the token accrues from. Fees include the share paid to liquidity providers; P/S uses protocol revenue only. Low-float tokens show a much higher FDV/F than P/F. Pre-TGE venues are listed unranked with fees and OI, no ratio. A low multiple is not a recommendation.

Perp DEX daily volume 2026: Hyperliquid, Aster, Lighter, GMX, Gains, dYdX by UTC day, backfilled

Trading
ProviderDaily perp volumeVolume 30dShare 30d
dYdX$32.17M$1.22B0.33%
Lighter$2.13B$51.84B14.1%
View
dYdXn/aLightern/a

Volume is self-reported by each venue's public data surface and counted per UTC day, one side of each trade. Perimeters differ slightly per venue and are stated in the ledger notes. A closed day can be restated by a venue for one to two days; the harness re-reads the last three days every hour. Not a measure of organic flow: incentive programs and wash trading inflate notional on every venue.

Rolling 24h · Daily perp volumeRaw JSON

Perp DEX volume to open interest: 24h turnover per dollar of OI, live

Trading

dYdX

Leads

0.986x

p99
1.317x
rank
#10
samples
2,880

Lighter

Trails

2.51x

p99
2.72x
rank
#15
samples
2,880
Volume / OI (24h)
dYdXn/aLightern/a

The ratio is a screen, not a verdict. Both terms are the venue's own figures (24h volume and open interest as each API reports them, in USD), so a venue that counts both legs of a fill moves its ratio without changing anything real. A very low ratio (Ostium, 0.2x) means positions held for days on thin daily volume; a very high one (Kalshi, above 40x) means a day of trading dwarfs what stays open. The bands in the methodology say what each range usually means.

Rolling 24h · Volume / OI (24h)Raw JSON

Frequently asked questions

dYdX vs Lighter: which one is better?

dYdX and Lighter are compared on 15 shared OpenChainBench benchmarks. dYdX leads on Cheapest perp venue to hold a position, live funding normalized. Lighter leads on Cheapest perp DEX, live all-in cost from $1k to $1M on ETH, BTC and SOL. See the live table on this page for every metric.

Which is cheaper on funding cost to hold a long 24h, dYdX or Lighter?

On the Cheapest perp venue to hold a position, live funding normalized benchmark, dYdX leads at 0.82 bps versus Lighter at 2.84 bps. Live measurement is updated continuously by the OpenChainBench harness.

Which is cheaper on all-in cost, dYdX or Lighter?

On the Cheapest perp DEX, live all-in cost from $1k to $1M on ETH, BTC and SOL benchmark, Lighter leads at 0.0022% versus dYdX at 0.072%. Live measurement is updated continuously by the OpenChainBench harness.

How is the dYdX vs Lighter comparison measured?

Every benchmark on this page uses the same open methodology, published at https://openchainbench.com/methodology. Data is CC-BY-4.0. Measurement harnesses are MIT-licensed.

Related comparisons

How this pair was selected

Auto-generated pairs require: both providers in the same benchmark for seven consecutive days, at least 1000 samples per provider, observable third-party search demand, and a public /products/[slug] page on OCB. Editorially curated pairs (like this one) may publish early when search demand is high and data is accruing; panels with fewer than 100 samples are shown as provisional. The full pair ledger is versioned in the public repo.

Live data refreshes via ISR within 60 seconds of a new run. Sources are the same Prometheus queries surfaced on the parent benchmark pages.