⚠︎ Risk warning: leveraged derivatives on unregulated platforms — you can lose everything you deposit. Not investment advice.

Comparison · By Stephan Kulik · Updated 2026-09-09

Lighter vs Pacifica (2026): Zero Fees vs Solana Tiers

Both venues are newer order books with weekly points programmes and no fiat on-ramp. Lighter settles to Ethereum through a zk-rollup and charges Standard accounts nothing. Pacifica matches off-chain and settles on Solana, with maker and taker rates that fall with volume, hourly funding capped at 4%, and a published 3–50x leverage range. Lighter has a live token; Pacifica's docs confirm none.

At a glance

✓ facts verified 2026-07-16 · each venue's official docs Every cell restates a claim on one of this site's pages: /compare/hyperliquid-vs-lighter/ , /lighter/fees/ , /pacifica/ , /pacifica/how-to-start/ , /pacifica/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/.

Pacifica — Order-book maker/taker; volume tiers. Base tier: 0.040% → 0.028% (by tier) taker, 0.015% → 0% (by tier) maker. Numerics are the entry tier; both rates improve with volume. Discounts: Eight 30-day-volume tiers take taker to 0.028% and maker to 0% (VIP 1 from $100M); a verified tier from another exchange can be carried over for 30 days; no token discount. Schedule verified 2026-09-11 on /pacifica/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 Pacifica lists 75; 65 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.
• Pacifica: None documented. Points: Active — Points program; 10,000,000 points/week; snapshots Thursdays 00:00 UTC; organic trading only, self-trading and sybil activity excluded. No conversion or token-launch statement in the docs fetched.

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

Cost and the token. 0% both sides on Standard accounts against Pacifica's tiered taker rate; a published Premium grid for those who outgrow Standard; LIT live and bought back from fee revenue where Pacifica has no confirmed token. Ethereum settlement through validity proofs rather than an off-chain matcher.

Where Pacifica wins

Points clarity and published risk controls. Its docs state a weekly pool, a snapshot time, and that self-trading and sybil activity earn nothing; Lighter's retail page states a pool but its market-makers page says the season ended. Pacifica also publishes its funding cap and its leverage range, both verified on this site's Hyperliquid vs Pacifica page.

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.
• Pacifica: No token is confirmed live; the docs make no conversion or launch statement.
• Pacifica: Insurance fund — the liquidation docs describe a backstop liquidator, not a fund; market count — four different official figures (2026-09-11).

Which to pick

For cost or a live token, Lighter. For Solana-native trading with a points programme whose rules are unambiguous, Pacifica, with the caveat that no token is confirmed and the docs make no conversion statement. On leverage, Pacifica publishes its range and Lighter's was not verified here, so check the market page before sizing. The Lighter review holds the detail on the Lighter side.

Related comparisons

• Lighter vs Aster
• Lighter vs dYdX
• Lighter vs edgeX
• Lighter vs Paradex
• Lighter vs Extended
• Hyperliquid vs Lighter
• Hyperliquid vs Pacifica

FAQ

Does Pacifica have a token?

Not one confirmed live in its docs on the verification date, and no launch or conversion statement was found. Its points are earned by organic trading only.

Which has lower fees?

Lighter's Standard tier at 0% both sides. Pacifica's maker rate reaches 0% at the top of its volume ladder; its taker rate does not.

Is Lighter's points programme still running?

Its retail page describes weekly distribution with no end date, but its market-makers page says Season 2 ended in December 2025. This site lists it as unverified until the docs agree.