⚠︎ Risk warning: leveraged derivatives on unregulated platforms — you can lose everything you deposit. Not investment advice.
Public Pools on Lighter
Verified against Lighter's official docs on 2026-09-29. The pool screen itself is shown on the Lighter trading screen.
A Public Pool is delegated trading. Depositors hand USDC to an operator, who "trades on their behalf", and the pool's results, gains and losses, become theirs. The docs describe two sides, and the rules on each side decide how much you depend on the operator.
The operator side
- Whitelisted. Operators "are, currently, whitelisted by the protocol to run strategies." Anyone can deposit; not anyone can run a pool.
- Trades from a sub-account. "Trading is conducted via a Sub Account in the Operator's account."
- Operator fee. A percentage of profits paid to the operator "upon participant withdrawals". It is charged on profit, not on deposits.
- Minimum operator share. The operator must keep a minimum ownership share. The docs' example: at a 10% minimum, an operator with 10,000 USDC in the pool caps outside deposits at 90,000 USDC.
- No isolated margin. "Public Pools do not support isolated positions", so every pool position shares one cross-margin balance.
The depositor side
A deposit buys pool shares, which you redeem when you withdraw. The docs contrast this with other vaults: "Public Pools do not impose lockup periods, and funds can be withdrawn at any time." That is a liquidity promise about your shares, not a promise about their value. A withdrawal redeems at whatever the pool is worth when you leave.
What to check before depositing
- The operator fee, because it comes out of your profit on the way out.
- The operator's own share. The minimum share keeps the operator exposed to the same results you are.
- The track record, knowing that a short record in calm markets says little about a crash.
- That everything runs on cross margin, so one bad position can drag down the whole pool.
FAQ
Is a Public Pool a yield product?
No. Returns are whatever the operator's trading makes or loses; see our guide to earning on perp DEXs.
Can I get stuck in a pool?
The docs say there is no lockup. What you get back depends on the pool's value at withdrawal.
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