Lighter’s LIT token traded around $3.13 on Nov. 2, up roughly 6.3% after founder Vladimir Novakovski said the project plans to apply to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission this month for Designated Contract Market and Derivatives Clearing Organization registrations.
The move could open Lighter’s perpetual futures to U.S. institutional traders, but no formal application had been filed as of the latest reporting. LIT opened near $3.16, reached about $3.25, and later slipped to $3.10 before settling near $3.13. The token remains below its September peak above $5 after a volatile October. Analysts are watching the $3.00–$3.10 support zone, while a move above $3.50 would be needed to restart the uptrend.
Market commentator Altcoin Sherpa said LIT could run toward $3.75–$4.00 if Bitcoin remains stable, calling it a ‘very strong mover.’ Momentum indicators were mixed: the daily RSI sat at 46.11, below neutral, while the MACD histogram turned positive and the MACD line began curling higher, suggesting fading bearish momentum.
Meanwhile, Lighter’s fundamentals continued to expand. Total value locked stood near $793 million, with about $5.9 million in fees and $4.9 million in revenue over 30 days. The protocol repurchased about $4.03 million of LIT in the month through Oct. 31, bringing buybacks since January to about $33.2 million. Only about 250 million of the 1 billion maximum LIT supply is circulating, with team and investor vesting scheduled to begin Dec. 27. Approval is not guaranteed, and Robinhood recently chose Bitstamp over Lighter for its U.S. perpetual-futures offering, citing regulatory structure, although Lighter still powers perpetual products within Robinhood’s international ecosystem.
At the same time, Wall Street resistance to tokenized stocks intensified. Fifty publicly traded companies worth more than $25 trillion now object to having their shares tokenized through OKXICE, the joint venture between crypto exchange OKX and Intercontinental Exchange, parent of the New York Stock Exchange. Nvidia, Microsoft, Nike, Alphabet, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs are among the companies opposing the initiative. The number of objectors rose from 26 just four days earlier, with 12 added in the latest notice alone. Nasdaq warned that poorly regulated tokenized markets could fragment liquidity and weaken price discovery.
Hyperliquid, the dominant decentralized perpetual futures venue, continued to attract major activity, but token supply remained a concern. HYPE traded below $90 with a market cap approaching $21 billion. Hyperliquid Labs unstaked 3.75 million HYPE in October for an institutional over-the-counter transaction worth about $330 million at the time, and another 180,000 HYPE tokens were unstaked for team distribution on Nov. 6. The OTC structure reduced immediate selling pressure on public exchanges, but the moves created a potential supply overhang as the competition between Hyperliquid and Lighter intensifies.
The broader question is whether onchain trading platforms can capture large traditional financial markets as tokenization faces both regulatory hurdles and corporate pushback. Lighter’s CFTC filing plans are now the key November catalyst, while Hyperliquid’s ability to manage supply and volume will shape the next phase of the decentralized exchange race.
