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Lighter vs Aster (2026): Zero Fees vs 0% Maker
These are the two venues most often chosen on cost alone, and they get there by different routes. Lighter, a zero-knowledge rollup on Ethereum, charges Standard accounts nothing to take or make. Aster, an order book on BNB Chain, charges makers nothing and takers a rate that depends on which of its two perp families you trade. The rest of the comparison is about what sits behind those two zeros.
Verdict
Lighter is cheaper for takers; Aster is not more expensive for makers. A maker-only strategy pays nothing on either. A taker pays nothing on Lighter's Standard tier and a published rate on Aster. Aster answers with a live $ASTER token and a points programme its docs tie to an airdrop; Lighter's LIT is live too, but its docs do not say what points become and its Season 2 status is unclear. Pick Lighter for taker cost, Aster for a documented points-to-token path, and read the fine print on both zeros.
At a glance
| Lighter | Aster | |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | zk-rollup on Ethereum | BNB Chain · order book |
| Custody | Non-custodial (rollup) | Self-custody |
| KYC | Not stated | None |
| Base perp fees | 0% (Standard) / 0.0280% (Premium) / 0% (Standard) / 0.0040% (Premium) t/m WINNER | 0.04% (USDT-margined) / 0.005% (USD1-margined) / 0% t/m |
| Funding | 1h period · P2P | 8h default; per-symbol 1h/4h/8h via the API |
| Token | LIT · live | $ASTER · live (TGE claim window 17 Sep – 17 Oct 2025) |
| Points programme | Unverified · Points Season 2 | Active · Aster Convergence: Stage 6 |
facts verified · each venue's official docs Every cell restates a claim on one of this site's pages: /compare/hyperliquid-vs-lighter/ , /lighter/fees/ , /compare/hyperliquid-vs-aster/ , /aster/fees/ , /airdrops/ .
Fees
Lighter — Order-book; zero-fee Standard accounts, paid Premium tier for higher limits. Base tier: 0% (Standard) / 0.0280% (Premium) taker, 0% (Standard) / 0.0040% (Premium) maker. Numerics reflect Standard accounts (zero-fee); Premium trades 0.0040%/0.0280% with a LIT-staking discount grid. Discounts: LIT staking reduces Premium rates on a published grid. Standard’s trade-off is latency (300ms taker) and API rate limits, not hidden fees or position caps; LIT is live (staking discounts the Premium grid) and the points program remains a separate, conversion-undocumented track. Schedule verified 2026-07-31 on /lighter/fees/.
Aster — Order-book maker/taker; two perp contract families with different taker rates. Base tier: 0.04% (USDT-margined) / 0.005% (USD1-margined) taker, 0% maker. Taker numeric uses the USDT-margined family; USD1-margined trades at 0.005% — pick per family when calculating. Discounts: Referral rebate up to 10% (referrer-configured split, not guaranteed); ASTER-token fee payment discount exists as a separate lever. 0% maker means maker-heavy flow pays nothing — and generates no referral commission. Schedule verified 2026-07-31 on /aster/fees/.
Base-tier rates answer one narrow question — what a small taker order costs on day one. Your maker/taker mix, volume tier and holding period decide the real number; the fee comparison lays all twelve venues side by side and the execution-cost tool adds live slippage on top.
Markets they share
In this site's market join, snapshot 2026-09-02, Lighter lists 214 perp markets and Aster lists 538; 173 appear on both. The market index shows every asset with the venues that list it and each venue's published leverage, and the join is refreshed weekly by a fail-closed pipeline. Breadth is not depth: a listing says nothing about how much size a book absorbs, which the execution-cost tool measures live where a venue publishes its order book.
Token and points
- Lighter: LIT · live. Points: Unverified — Points Season 2; Retail track: 200,000 points/week, distributed Fridays for Wednesday – Tuesday activity. The docs do not state what points redeem for, and no points-to-LIT conversion is documented. LIT is live and bought back from fee revenue. The market-makers page says "Points Season 2 ended on December 26th 2025"; the retail page and the overview still describe weekly Season 2 distribution and have not been updated with an end date. The docs do not say whether the retail track continues, so the status stays unverified until they do.
- Aster: $ASTER · live (TGE claim window 17 Sep – 17 Oct 2025). Points: Active — Aster Convergence: Stage 6; Calculated weekly; five point categories × team boost, plus two-level referral points; weightings undisclosed. Docs: points "accumulate toward your $ASTER airdrop share at the conclusion of Stage 6". Conversion ratio, Stage 6’s share and the end date are not published.
Both rows are restated from the points & airdrop tracker, which is re-read against each venue's docs on a 45-day cadence and never prices a point.
Where Lighter wins
Taker cost, outright: Standard accounts pay 0% on both sides, and the trade-off is latency and rate limits rather than a hidden fee. Funding settles hourly and peer to peer. The rollup settles to Ethereum, which some traders prefer to a venue on a single chain's validator set. LIT is live and bought back from fee revenue, so the token side is no longer a promise.
Where Aster wins
Documentation of the points path: Aster's Stage 6 docs state that points accumulate toward an $ASTER airdrop share, and the tokenomics publish a 53.5% Airdrop category, even though Stage 6's own share and the conversion ratio are not stated. Aster also lists far more perp markets in this site's join, and its 0% maker rate applies without a tier or a latency trade-off. Its funding cadence is published per symbol through the API rather than fixed.
What this site could not verify
- Lighter: KYC and access rules are not stated in the docs this site verified.
- Lighter: Whether Points Season 2 is still running: the market-makers page says it ended on 2025-12-26, the retail page has not been updated.
- Lighter: What points redeem for — no points-to-LIT conversion is documented.
- Aster: US access rules — not verified either way.
- Aster: Liquidity depth — not benchmarked by this site.
- Aster: The points-to-token ratio, Stage 6’s share of the airdrop allocation, and the stage’s end date — unpublished.
Which to pick
If you take liquidity and fees are the deciding line, Lighter's Standard tier is hard to argue with on the numbers, provided its latency profile suits you. If you make liquidity, the two are equal on fees and the choice turns on markets, chain and token. If you are trading for a points programme, Aster's is the one with a documented airdrop link; Lighter's should be treated as unverified until its docs agree with themselves. The Lighter review and Aster review carry the full mechanics and the verification dates behind every row above.
Related comparisons
- Lighter vs dYdX
- Lighter vs edgeX
- Lighter vs Paradex
- Lighter vs Extended
- Lighter vs Pacifica
- Hyperliquid vs Lighter
- Hyperliquid vs Aster
FAQ
Is Lighter really cheaper than Aster?
For takers, yes: Lighter's Standard accounts pay 0% where Aster charges a published taker rate. For makers the two are level at 0%. Lighter's Premium tier, which exists for latency-sensitive flow, does charge fees; the fee section above quotes both grids.
Which one has the better airdrop?
Neither has a priced one. Aster's docs commit points to an $ASTER airdrop share without a ratio or an end date; Lighter's docs do not say what points redeem for. The tracker keeps both rows dated and never estimates a value.
Do they list the same markets?
Partly. The shared-market count above is computed from this site's weekly market join, and the market index shows which venue lists any given asset.
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