Arthur Hayes could have exited HYPE, however that doesn’t mark the tip of DEX bets. Hyperliquid is consolidating its lead whereas merchants rotate towards smaller, fee-focused challengers like Lighter in the hunt for the following breakout platform.
The Maelstrom founder said in a post on X Thursday afternoon Hong Kong time he offered his complete HYPE and NEAR positions, citing increased power costs, a wave of upcoming AI IPOs and his expectation that danger property may peak between now and September.
However even as Hayes exits the DEX market, Bizantine Capital Managing Associate March Zheng is making the other wager, arguing that lower-cost venues like Lighter are solely starting to draw institutional buying and selling circulate.
Lighter’s LIT token has gained greater than 80% over the previous month as merchants wager decrease charges may entice a rising share of quantitative and market-making exercise.
Zheng’s thesis facilities on Lighter’s zero-fee buying and selling mannequin. Normal accounts pay no maker or taker charges, whereas Hyperliquid’s base payment schedule fees 0.015% for makers and 0.045% for takers. Zheng mentioned Bizantine’s inner evaluation discovered that decrease buying and selling prices considerably elevated the share of worthwhile methods.
That chance exists properly beneath the highest of the leaderboard. Hyperliquid processed roughly $12.6 billion in perpetual futures quantity over the previous 24 hours, DeFiLlama information reveals, greater than thrice second-place Aster’s $4 billion and properly forward of Lighter’s $2.1 billion.
The hole is even wider in open curiosity, the place Hyperliquid sits above $10 billion versus roughly $1.8 billion for Aster and $737 million for Lighter.
Fairly than making an attempt to dethrone Hyperliquid, Zheng argues the market is changing into more and more specialised, with totally different venues serving various kinds of merchants.
“Most funds obsess over entry signals and ignore execution infrastructure,” he mentioned.
In Zheng’s view, fee-sensitive methods will gravitate towards lower-cost venues such as Lighter, whereas liquidity-sensitive circulate stays targeting Hyperliquid.
“We’re not betting towards Hyperliquid. We’re betting that the market hasn’t but priced in what Lighter turns into when it captures its share of the fee-sensitive circulate.”
