There was a lot of debate regarding who owned Lighter’s LIT token when it first came out. Whale trades and prediction markets indicated that people had varied beliefs about how much it was worth.
The decentralised finance (DeFi) community had mixed feelings after Lighter, one of the fastest-growing permanent decentralised exchanges (DEXs), showed off the tokenomics of its new Lighter Infrastructure Token (LIT).
LIT tokenomics and how it is distributed
The ecosystem gets half of LIT’s supply, and the team and investors get the other half. This will happen over the course of a year and, subsequently, over several years.
Lighter said that as part of the rollout, it had already handed out 25% of LIT’s total supply through an airdrop that was related to its first two points seasons, which took place in 2025.
At first, the program paid out 12.5 million points, which were then changed into LIT and awarded to users who completed the conditions. The other 25% of the ecosystem allocation will be saved for future points, seasons, partnerships, and other ways to grow.
Lighter said, “The team and investors will have to wait a year to unlock their money, and then it will vest over three years.” “The split is 26% for the team and 24% for the investor.”
How the community reacted to insider allocation
People on social media have different opinions on the protocol’s decision to distribute the token allocation evenly between the ecosystem and insiders. Some people liked how open it was, but others thought it was “wild.”
Lighter is one of the best perpetual DEXs in the DeFi sector. DefiLlama boasts that the platform has seen more than $200 billion in perpetuals trading volume in the last 30 days, which is greater than competitors like Hyperliquid and Aster.
Different people in the crypto community on X have different thoughts about LIT’s tokenomics. Some individuals said that giving the team and investors 50% of the supply was too much for a product that was made for DeFi. They also noted that supply arrangements with a lot of insiders might occasionally cause big sell-offs just after debut.
Some people fought back against what they called “FUD,” saying that big infrastructure doesn’t be developed without real investor support and that the delayed vesting schedules make it less likely that people will lose money right away.
Another member of the community noted that the tokenomics structure is “clean” and that the token is useful. They also said that the community is strong.
Along with the attitude, the public positions of big traders also showed a split.Onchain Lens, a blockchain analytics firm, observed that a number of whales opened leveraged short positions on LIT, betting millions of dollars against the token right after the announcement.
The company also indicated an address for a whale that had been dormant for more than a year. Even though the whale was losing money, this action significantly increased the size of its long position. This proved that individuals were confident in the token’s future and not merely betting for a limited time.
Prediction markets and expectations for value
People quickly began to speak about LIT’s launch in places other than social media and on-chain trading sites, such the prediction market Polymarket.
More than $70 million worth of bets were placed on the platform by traders on where LIT’s fully diluted valuation (FDV) would be a day after it started.
The market thought it was very certain that LIT would be worth at least $1 billion, but confidence fell when it went beyond $2 billion and $3 billion.