# Lighter vs Extended in 2026

Updated: 24 September 2026. Rate pages read 18 September 2026. Books timed 21 September 2026. The Cost Per Trade pricing desk

## The verdict

Lighter vs Extended on 24 September 2026: both publish a zero maker fee, and the taker side decides it. A
$10,000 round trip cost $0.86 all in on one and $5.12 on the other, and the scores are
42.8 against 38.4. The flat rate buys speed and a bug bounty.

## Lighter vs Extended, line by line

| Line | Lighter | Extended |
|---|---|---|
| All-in on a $10,000 round trip | $0.86 | $5.12 |
| Published fees on $10,000 | $0.00 | $5.00 |
| Paid to the order book | $0.86 | $0.12 |
| Score of 50 | 42.8 | 38.4 |
| How it charges | Nothing on the default account; the accounts that fill faster are the ones that pay | One flat schedule for every account and every order type, with no volume tiers |
| Entry maker and taker | 0% maker / 0% taker on a Standard account; 0.004% and 0.028% on the opt-in Premium account | 0% maker / 0.025% taker, and 0.010% to takers on real-world-asset markets |
| What the cheap side costs in time | 300 milliseconds on a taker order, 200 on a maker order, 300 on a cancel | No latency penalty published; every restart opens with 120 seconds of post-only trading |
| Walk on a $1,000,000 order | 1.55 bps, the whole order filled | 0.77 bps, the whole order filled |
| Perpetual markets | 214, all of them on a public book | 325, of which 278 are filled on request |
| Where trades are recorded | Matched on an operator-run sequencer, every batch proven on Ethereum | Matched on its own book or by market makers, every transaction settled on Starknet |
| Getting out without the operator | A priority queue on Ethereum, and a frozen contract if the sequencer ignores it | Nothing of the kind in the documentation we read |
| Bug bounty | None offered, by its own vulnerability disclosure policy | Its own programme, up to $500,000 for a critical report |

Weights: Published rate 40 · Execution cost 30 · Where the money sits 12 · Security record 8 · What the rate buys 6 · Who may pay it 4, on a scale of zero to 50, fixed 22 September 2026. Method in full: https://thundermessage.com/how-we-price

Venue figures read on 18 September 2026 in each venue's own documentation, trading terms and rate pages; the order-book figures are our own.

## Where the money goes

| Venue | Published fee on $10,000 | Paid to the order book | All-in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lighter | $0.00 | $0.86 | $0.86 |
| Extended | $5.00 | $0.12 | $5.12 |

1. Makers pay 0% on both. Takers pay 0% against 0.025%.
2. Published fees differ by $5.00 on a $10,000 round trip; the books hand $0.74 of that back.
3. Depth ran the other way: $16.2 million against $7.8 million within 10 basis points.
4. At $1,000,000 the walk on the free book was still the wider: 1.55 bps against 0.77 bps.

## The surcharge behind the rate

Both BTC perpetual books were read 00:00 to 23:54 UTC on 21 September 2026, at ten-minute stops; the figures are medians of every successful reading.

| Venue | Median spread | Resting within 10 bps | Walk on $10,000 | Walk on $100,000 | Readings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lighter | 0.01 bps | $16.2 million | 0.43 bps | 0.71 bps | 52 |
| Extended | 0.12 bps | $7.8 million | 0.06 bps | 0.06 bps | 53 |

## [Lighter](https://lighter.xyz) — the cheaper round trip at every size we priced

$0.86 all-in on a $10,000 round trip: $0.00 in published fees and $0.86 paid to the order book. 0% maker / 0% taker. Score 42.8 of 50.

Points before the weights: Published rate 10.0 · Execution cost 6.4 · Where the money sits 10.0 · Security record 7.0 · What the rate buys 9.2 · Who may pay it 8.0.

The Standard account charges 0% maker / 0% taker on every perpetual and spot market and slows taker
orders to 300 milliseconds ([Lighter fee documentation](https://docs.lighter.xyz/trading/trading-fees), checked 18 September 2026). Matching
runs on an operator-run sequencer and every batch is proven on Ethereum, where the deposit contracts
sit. The readings put $16.2 million within 10 basis points of the BTC mid price, on a median
spread of 0.01 bps.

- Buys: Nothing charged on either side of the account a new trader is given; $16.2 million resting within 10 basis points, more than twice the other column; A documented forced exit through a priority queue on Ethereum; Nine external audits between 2025 and 2026.
- Not covered: The account that costs nothing is the slow one, at 300 milliseconds on a taker order; No public bug bounty, by its own vulnerability disclosure policy; A $10,000 order walked 0.43 bps against 0.06 bps in the other column; Every order passes through one operator-run sequencer hosted on a cloud provider.
- Not for: a strategy that cannot give up a third of a second on the way in.

## [Extended](https://extended.exchange/) — a flat rate with no delay on the order

$5.12 all-in on a $10,000 round trip: $5.00 in published fees and $0.12 paid to the order book. 0% maker / 0.025% taker. Score 38.4 of 50.

Points before the weights: Published rate 8.5 · Execution cost 5.8 · Where the money sits 7.0 · Security record 10.0 · What the rate buys 9.6 · Who may pay it 8.0.

0% maker / 0.025% taker for every account and every order type, with nothing above it to reach for
([Extended fee documentation](https://docs.extended.exchange/extended-resources/trading/trading-fees-and-rebates), checked 18 September 2026). Orders are matched on its own book
or filled by market makers on request, and every transaction is settled on Starknet with deposits in
self-custodial contracts. Its book held $7.8 million within 10 basis points, and a $10,000
order walked 0.06 bps.

- Buys: The same 0.025% whatever the account trades, and no latency penalty; Maker rebates of 0.002% to 0.010% above 0.5% of 30-day maker volume; Its own bug bounty, up to $500,000 for a critical report; 0.06 bps of walk on a $10,000 order, against 0.43 bps.
- Not covered: 278 of its 325 active perpetuals are filled on request, with no public book; $7.8 million within 10 basis points, under half the other column; Two published audits, both of the settlement contracts rather than the matching engine; Deposits and withdrawals ride a third-party bridge, and over $1 million can take four hours.
- Not for: an account whose only criterion is the published rate.

## Two zeros that sit in different places

Both rate pages open with a zero, and the two zeros do not cover the same thing. On Lighter the
Standard account pays nothing on either side of every perpetual and spot market and buys that with
delay: 300 milliseconds on a taker order, 200 on a maker order and 300 on a cancel. The opt-in
Premium account fills takers in 140 milliseconds and charges 0.004% and 0.028%
([Lighter fee documentation](https://docs.lighter.xyz/trading/trading-fees), checked 18 September 2026).

Extended puts its zero on the maker side only and leaves it there for everybody:
0% maker / 0.025% taker, no tiers, no staking route, 0.010% to takers on real-world-asset markets, and
a rebate of 0.002% to 0.010% for makers above 0.5% of 30-day maker volume, paid daily once it passes
$10 ([Extended fee documentation](https://docs.extended.exchange/extended-resources/trading/trading-fees-and-rebates), checked 18 September 2026). A strategy that only posts is
charged nothing on either venue; a strategy that crosses is charged nothing on one.

## What the same trade cost on each side

On a $10,000 position opened and closed at market the published fees were $0.00 and
$5.00. The order-book readings then added what the book takes:
0.43 bps of walk each way on the free book and
0.06 bps on the flat-rate one, which is $0.86 against $0.12. The all-in totals
were $0.86 and $5.12, so the order book handed back
$0.74 of a gap that the two rate pages price at
$5.00, and the trader still paid
$4.26 more on the flat schedule.

Size moves the second half of that sum and not the first. A $100,000 order walked
0.71 bps against 0.06 bps, which is
$14.20 against
$1.20 for the round trip. At $1,000,000 the gap on the book widened
the same way: 1.55 bps against 0.77 bps, or
$310 against
$154, with the
whole order filled in both cases. The fees at that size are nothing against $500, so the cheaper
column never changes; only the margin does.

## What the taker rate buys on the other side

The dearer column is not an empty one. Extended runs its own bug bounty and pays up to $500,000 for a
critical report, where Lighter states in its disclosure policy that it operates no public programme
([Extended bounty programme](https://docs.extended.exchange/extended-resources/more/bounty-program), checked 18 September 2026). It also lists
325 active perpetual markets against 214, though 278 of
them are filled on request, with an indicative book and an open-interest cap.

The cheaper column answers with custody and with audit count. Lighter publishes nine reports from
zkSecurity, Nethermind and Zellic between 2025 and 2026, and documents an exit that does not need the
operator: critical withdrawals go into a priority queue on Ethereum, and the contract freezes if the
sequencer ignores them ([Lighter architecture documentation](https://docs.lighter.xyz/about-lighter/technical-architecture-lighter-core.md), checked 18 September 2026).
Extended's two published audits cover the Starknet perpetual contracts it settles on rather than its
own matching engine, and its documentation describes no forced exit at all.

Both have been interrupted. Lighter's sequencer stopped for four and a half hours during the crash of
10 October 2025 and it compensated traders afterwards; Extended's settlement layer halted on 5
January 2026 and reverted 18 minutes of activity.

Neither bill above counts the money at stake: a position closes out once the margin behind it is
gone, and the higher the leverage the smaller the move that gets there.

## FAQ

### Which is cheaper, Lighter or Extended?

Lighter, at every size we priced. Its default account publishes no fee at all against
0.025% to takers, so a $10,000 round trip cost $0.86 against $5.12 once the
order-book readings of 21 September 2026 were added. The gap widens with size rather than closing.

### What does the zero on Lighter's fee page cover?

Every perpetual and spot market, on both sides, for the Standard account a new trader is given. The
price is time: its own documentation puts taker orders at 300 milliseconds, maker orders at 200 and
cancels at 300. The opt-in Premium account fills takers in 140 and charges for it.

### Does Extended charge a maker fee?

No. Its flat schedule puts makers at 0% and takers at 0.025% on
every account, with no volume tiers and no staking route. Makers holding at least 0.5% of 30-day
maker volume are paid a rebate of 0.002% to 0.010%, settled daily once the amount passes $10.

### Which has deeper liquidity?

Lighter, on the readings: $16.2 million resting within 10 basis points of the BTC mid price
against $7.8 million, medians of 52 and 53
readings taken on 21 September 2026. The walk ran the other way at every size we priced.

### Which has more markets?

Extended, with 325 active perpetual markets against 214,
both counts read on 18 September 2026 from each venue's own market list. The headline hides the
shape: 278 of Extended's are filled by market makers on request, with an indicative book rather than
resting orders.

### Do either of them ask for KYC?

Neither asks for identity documents in order to trade, in the documentation we read on 18 September
2026. Both open an account from a wallet signature. Extended's terms reserve the right to deny access
after a transaction risk assessment, and Lighter's documentation records no verification step before
a first trade.

### Which is safer to keep funds on?

Both hold deposits in audited contracts, and neither has lost user money in 24 months. Lighter
documents a forced exit through a priority queue on Ethereum, which Extended does not; Extended runs
a bug bounty paying up to $500,000, which Lighter does not. That is seven points against ten on our
security criterion.

### lighter vs extended for a maker-only strategy?

Both charge makers nothing, so the rebate decides it. Extended pays 0.002% to 0.010% back to makers
above 0.5% of 30-day maker volume; Lighter publishes no maker rebate at all and instead delays the
free account's orders by 200 milliseconds on the maker side.

### What is a request-for-quote market?

A market where a market maker fills the order on request rather than matching it against a public
book. The displayed book is indicative only, each market carries an open-interest cap, and it turns
reduce-only once the cap is reached. 278 of Extended's 325 active perpetuals work this way.

### What happens if one of them stops?

Lighter's sequencer stopped for four and a half hours on 10 October 2025 and it compensated traders
afterwards; its documentation describes an exit that works without the operator. Extended's
settlement layer halted on 5 January 2026 and reverted 18 minutes of activity.

## Quoted from the rate pages

> "For both perpetual futures and spot markets, Lighter currently charges no maker or taker fees for Standard Accounts, allowing all participants to trade across all markets free of charge." — Lighter documentation, Trading fees, 18 September 2026. https://docs.lighter.xyz/trading/trading-fees
> "Currently, Extended features a flat fee structure for both perpetuals and spot markets: Taker: 0.025% Maker: 0.000%" — Extended documentation, Trading fees and rebates, 18 September 2026. https://docs.extended.exchange/extended-resources/trading/trading-fees-and-rebates
> "There is no public order book. The order book displayed on the trading screen is indicative only and does not represent resting orders from other traders." — Extended documentation, Request-for-quote execution, 18 September 2026. https://docs.extended.exchange/extended-resources/trading/rfq-execution
> "Users can submit critical exit operations—such as withdrawals, public pool exits, or reduce-only IOC orders—on-chain, ensuring that the Sequencer must process them within a predefined timeframe." — Lighter documentation, Technical architecture, 18 September 2026. https://docs.lighter.xyz/about-lighter/technical-architecture-lighter-core.md
## How this sheet was priced

Quoted off each venue's own pages, 18 September 2026: rates, market counts, sign-in rules, audits.
Read off the public book here: every BTC perpetual, 00:00 to 23:54 UTC on 21 September 2026, at ten-minute stops. The weights came
first, 22 September 2026, before any of the 2 venues was priced
([how we rate](/how-we-price)). No order was sent.

The price here leaves out volume tiers, staking, rebates and cashback. Funding is billed on its own
clock. One contract was timed: BTC. What a chain is told, and what the past 24 months hold, come from
the venue's telling, not from anything tested here.

Both venues are priced with the same formula, fixed before either was scored, and with the same order-book readings. Every figure carries the day it was taken. Corrections: desk@thundermessage.com.

The Cost Per Trade pricing desk, 24 September 2026

This price desk is paid to publish, and a venue on the sheet may be the party that paid; the order of every column is the published formula.