Lighter Adds EVM Support to Expand DeFi Beyond Trading

• Lighter EVM enables general purpose smart contracts, allowing DeFi apps like Uniswap and Aave to run natively.
• The EVM rollup uses Axiom’s OpenVM zkVM while preserving Lighter’s high speed trading circuits.
• Joint settlement on Ethereum allows fast asset movement and shared liquidity across trading and DeFi layers.

Lighter has announced the launch of Lighter EVM, a major upgrade that adds Ethereum Virtual Machine support to its platform. The move allows developers to deploy general-purpose smart contracts directly on Lighter. The announcement outlines how the trading-focused network plans to support broader DeFi activity through native EVM compatibility.

Lighter Moves Beyond a Trading-Only Model

Originally built as a high-performance trading engine, Lighter now aims to operate as a broader blockchain platform. Notably, Lighter EVM will allow applications like Uniswap and Aave to run alongside its markets. This structure enables shared liquidity across trading, lending, and other DeFi use cases.

According to Lighter, deeper integration reduces fragmentation between applications. Consequently, the platform expects fewer incentive-driven behaviors, including point farming. Lighter also confirmed ongoing research into lowering latency further. Additionally, the team is exploring synchronous execution models for more complex DeFi interactions.

EVM Rollup Built With Axiom and OpenVM

Lighter developed Lighter EVM through an engineering collaboration with Axiom. The system uses OpenVM, Axiom’s extensible zkVM, to verify EVM execution. Importantly, this runs alongside Lighter’s existing custom circuits without changes.

Those circuits continue verifying exchange operations at high speed. Meanwhile, OpenVM secures general-purpose applications using Rust-based EVM logic. According to Lighter, internal devnets validated the architecture after extensive research. The platform is now preparing an initial public release in the coming weeks.

Fast Interoperability Across Lighter Environments

Lighter EVM will settle jointly with Lighter on Ethereum mainnet. As a result, users can transfer assets, place orders, and manage positions across environments. Both execution layers are verified together using proof aggregation.

This design allows movement between environments within seconds, without waiting for Layer 1 finality. At launch, Lighter EVM will support synchronous reads of Lighter state. However, writes, including staking and transfers, will remain asynchronous.

Lighter said it is researching faster write paths. The platform also outlined potential use cases, including native stablecoins, collateral sharing, and tokenization, all enabled by close interoperability.