Lighter Users Report Withdrawal Issues After Perp DEX Launches LIT Token

Users on decentralized perpetuals exchange Lighter reported problems withdrawing assets today, Dec. 30, shortly after the platform announced and launched its native LIT token overnight.

According to reports from Wu Blockchain, as well as traders on X, the Ethereum Layer 2 DEX appears to have stopped processing withdrawals normally as of this morning. Some analysts said the delay may have been caused by Lighter’s system falling behind while handling increased withdrawal requests, with users reportedly receiving an error message “Too many L2 Withdrawals.”

As of press time, Lighter, which has a total value locked (TVL) of nearly $1.5 billion, has not released a public statement about the reported issues on the platform. The Defiant contacted Lighter for comment, but the team has yet to respond by press time.

Stealth Token Launch

The reported withdrawal problems came shortly after Lighter’s rapid rollout of its much-anticipated token. The Miami-based project made its first official announcement about the Lighter Infrastructure Token (LIT) at 11:45 p.m. EST on Monday, Dec. 29, and the token went live just a few hours later, around 4 a.m. EST, giving users little notice before trading began.

“The Lighter airdrop has been one of the weirdest events this quarter,” Benjamin, co-founder of Deploy Finance, told The Defiant. “It was a silent airdrop, barely anyone is sharing their winnings on CT, and overall mindshare is extremely low. Did the airdrop even happen?”

He further compared the situation to the launch of Hyperliquid’s HYPE token last year, which he said had “massive noise and real FOMO across the market,” especially from those who didn’t forecast the HYPE airdrop working as well as it did.

“What’s even more telling is that within less than a day of the TGE, Coinbase became the first exchange to list LIT. Keep in mind, HYPE was never listed on Coinbase.” Benjamin added.

“There is a clear bias toward propping up their own investment and exchange interests, and somehow this is never treated as a conflict of interest by Coinbase.”

In its X announcement last night, Lighter said the LIT token is designed to capture value from all of its products and services. The company also said that revenue from its trading platform and future tools will be visible on-chain and used either to grow the business or buy back tokens, “depending on market conditions.”

“The value created by all Lighter products and services will fully accrue to LIT holders,” the team wrote on X. “We are building in the USA and the token is issued directly from our C-Corp, which will continue to operate the protocol at cost.”

However, the team also shared its token distribution breakdown in the X thread, which multiple commentators criticized for its 50% of token supply allocation to the Lighter team and investors.

The LIT token is currently trading at $2.80, up about 2.8% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data. This followed sharp price swings after launch, though the token remains below its brief post-launch high of $7.86.

Ahead of the token launch, Lighter published its full system code and technical design at the end of last week, The Defiant previously reported.

Lighter Leads 30-Day Perp Volumes

Lighter remains one of the most active on-chain perpetual derivatives trading venues in recent months, with excitement around the protocol gaining momentum this fall as traders farmed points for airdrop allocations in anticipation of a token launch.

Lighter has processed more than $200 billion in perp volume over the past 30 days, outpacing Hyperliquid with about $165 billion. Over the past 24 hours alone, the perp DEX has recorded $4.3 billion in trading volume, behind Hyperliquid’s $6.87 billion, per DefiLlama data