Robinhood Chooses Bitstamp Over Lighter for Perpetual Futures

Lighter (LIT) saw its price drop by 3.73% over the last ~43 hours, largely due to Robinhood's decision to route U.S. perpetual futures through Bitstamp instead of Lighter.

This move was announced at the September HOOD Summit and led to a sharp repricing of LIT's growth story, with its price falling around 17% in less than an hour.

Investors had been pricing in Lighter as a strategic onchain perps partner for Robinhood, but the market cut back LIT's expected future fee and volume share when Bitstamp was chosen.

The drop is also attributed to crowded positioning being unwound by whales who had been accumulating into the narrative of LIT as a leading revenue-backed DeFi long.

Additional factors contributing to the move include upcoming token unlocks, intense competition in the onchain perps landscape, and a broader market environment with modest weakness in DeFi indices.