- Vladimir Novakovski, the Harvard prodigy and former Citadel engineer, raised $68 million for his decentralized trading platform Lighter.
- Operates as a custom layer 2 on Ethereum, focusing on verifiable matching and liquidations.
Lighter, a decentralized perpetual trading protocol, has secured $68 million in funding led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Ribbit Capital, with participation from Haun Ventures and Robinhood, according to Fortune.
The round follows an earlier $21 million raise led by Haun Ventures and Craft Ventures, bringing total funding to nearly $90 million.
Lighter operates a layer 2 exchange on Ethereum, enabling perpetual futures and soon spot trading. With early profitability and a strong technical team, the startup positions itself as a high-performance alternative to other perpetual DEXs by focusing on verifiable proofs for faster and more transparent on-chain trading.
Corporate interest in DeFi has grown as more firms explore decentralized vaults for managing spare cash amid easy access and competitive yields.