Lighter Platform's $250 Million Withdrawal Lowers LIT Price

Decentralized perpetual futures exchange Lighter, shortly after conducting a $675 million LIT token distribution, faced a $250 million intense withdrawal request. This development corresponds to one-fifth of the platform’s total locked value (TVL(), raising serious concerns among market participants.

Sudden Increase in Demand After Token Distribution

According to on-chain data from Bubblemaps, a transfer of $250 million has occurred. Bubblemaps CEO Nicolas Vaiman told CoinDesk that this withdrawal represents approximately 20% of Lighter’s total TVL of $1.4 billion. Vaiman noted that similar scenarios have occurred in past token creation events, with comparable outflows observed following the launches of Hyperliquid and Aster tokens.

Funds Distributed Across Multiple Networks

Lighter users transferred approximately $201.9 million on the Ethereum blockchain, while $52.2 million was withdrawn via the Arbitrum network. This distribution reflects how users manage liquidity across different chains and spread their position strategies across various decentralized platforms.

Early Participants Adjusting Positions

CertiK senior researcher Natalie Newson explained that the large fund withdrawals occurring after the )TGE( token creation events are triggered by airdrop collectors and early investors closing their positions. According to Newson, this situation is not limited to Lighter; similar dynamics are observed in many new token launches. The lack of clear visibility in new token distributions allows some insiders to gain disproportionate profits immediately after launch.

LIT Price Movements and Market Reaction

The price of the LIT token has recently experienced a significant decline. Since December 30, the token has fallen by approximately 23%, dropping from $3.37 to $2.57, under pressure in the final days of the year. More recently, LIT has rebounded to $1.77, showing a 5.41% increase over 24 hours.

Before the airdrop, LIT’s trading volume remained relatively stable between $8 billion and $15 billion in November. However, following the withdrawals, the daily trading volume dropped to as low as $2 billion. These figures indicate that the $250 million outflow continues to exert pressure on the platform’s liquidity dynamics.

Similar Trends Across the Sector

Similar token launch scenarios are expected to be observed on other DEXs. Sector analyst Vaiman predicts that the upcoming airdrops from other perpetual futures protocols like Paradex and Extended could lead to similar outflow trends. This dynamic demonstrates that liquidity fluctuations following token creation events are a systemic feature within the decentralized finance ecosystem.