Half a month ago, the Lighter TGE witnessed a new "rags-to-riches story" that left many in awe.

According to community statistics, Lighter's airdrop size ranks among the top 10 in cryptocurrency history, with a total value of up to 6.75 billion US dollars. Screenshots of earnings flooded social media: some exchanged a cost of a few thousand dollars for a five-figure airdrop, while others received returns ten times higher than expected due to early and continued engagement. Despite a rigorous witching-hour cleanse conducted by the project team before the snapshot, most early participants and users still reaped the benefits and rewards.

Currently, $LIT's price is stable at around $2.5-$3, although it did not replicate the frenzy seen with Hyperliquid and Aster during their TGE, Lighter's success undoubtedly added fuel to the Perp DEX race.

Behind this celebration, BlockBeats was curious: how much did these users who received good returns actually invest? What was their strategy? BlockBeats interviewed three early Lighter users with completely different backgrounds and strategies, whose stories may provide inspiration for your interaction with the next wave of Perp DEX.

Their Cost and Returns

Tea Pondering (@mdzzi), a name almost everyone in the Chinese Perp DEX community is familiar with. As a major player in Hyperliquid, he was also the first test user and top user in the Chinese community of Lighter.

His relationship with Lighter began during the testnet phase, back in September 2024, before Hyperliquid even launched its token. "So I never thought about the Lighter airdrop, I just found it fun," Tea Pondering recalled, mentioning that he only went to the testnet faucet every day, received 500 USDC in test coins, and started testing orders without spending any real money or investing too much time.

Tea Pondering even became the number one user in Lighter's testnet trading volume. With these simple actions, he accumulated over ten thousand points after the testnet ended.

A screenshot showing Lighter's staff member, sebas, messaging Tea Pondering to inquire if the number one ranked account belonged to him

At that time, Lighter was still an obscure project, and team members often lurked on everyone's output in various Spaces, and would actively DM active users on CT, in both Chinese and English areas.

The acquaintance between Teabusi and the Lighter team also took place in a Twitter Space in September 2024. In that Space, Teabusi invited some well-known OGs from the Hyperliquid community, including the Turkish tycoon NMTD, who later received a nearly one billion dollar airdrop, as well as active users from various communities around the world, to discuss the future of the Perp DEX and the development of Hyperliquid. "Not many people came to listen, maybe just twenty or thirty, but the Lighter staff was also listening and found our discussion very interesting."

After that Space, the Lighter team contacted Teabusi proactively to discuss the future of the Perp DEX track and their views on Hyperliquid, even asking him directly if he would go to Singapore to attend TOKEN 2049 and if they could meet.

"I was quite cautious at the time, thinking why this person is so familiar, could he be a scammer?" Teabusi admitted that his initial guard prevented him from having a deep conversation. However, with subsequent contact, he found that the team was indeed serious about their work, had a good background, especially the team's attempt to combine ZK technology with the Perp DEX caught Teabusi's interest, and he began to actively participate in the project, discussing some product details with the team, giving some suggestions, and so on.

After the end of the testnet, when the mainnet went live in the alpha stage, Teabusi naturally became one of the first batch of users to deposit real money and start trading. "Actually, I had reduced my trading by then, maybe only made a dozen or so transactions, but they gave me a lot of points." Most of his points came from the early period, and even though his involvement decreased later, these early points secured a good airdrop share for him.

Interestingly, in January this year, the Lighter team once offered Teabusi an offer to invite him to oversee Lighter's APAC market, but he declined. "On the one hand, the product experience was still relatively average at the time, with few tokens, and the market already had mature products like Hyperliquid, which attracted everyone's attention."

In addition to Teabusi, Jiufite (@Dex_Jiufite) is also a trader friend whom the BlockBeats editor has known for a long time. In December 2024, after the release of Hyperliquid's token, Jiufite sold a portion of HYPE as the price performed well, using the proceeds to continue trading on Lighter.

He started participating in Lighter in April 2025, when the project had just launched not long ago, and the point efficiency was still decent ("around two to three thousand transactions could earn one point"). JouleFitt vividly remembers that the rule at the time was to reach 300 points to receive his own invitation code, which became his first small goal for continued engagement.

Unlike many players who solely participated in airdrops, JouleFitt had his own "trading system," the profits of which covered the costs he incurred on Lighter. In the end, JouleFitt received 900 points. According to Lighter's distribution rules, 1 point corresponds to 20 $LIT, calculated at a price of $3, his airdrop was worth about $54,000.

Lighter is a zero-fee Perp DEX, which led many to believe that participating in Lighter incurred no costs. However, JouleFitt found that this did not mean that trading was completely cost-free: there were still hidden costs such as slippage and spread.

He observed that many people used scripts to batch hedge trades to earn points, but often overlooked a key issue: "If all market orders are used for hedging, the slippage caused by latency may not necessarily be lower than the fee." He specifically compared the overall execution costs of Lighter and several other dexes, finding that as the depth gradually decreased, the actual transaction execution cost would increase significantly, especially for meme coins with relatively low trading volume on the Lighter platform.

Replicable Interaction Tips, Methods for the Common Person

Although the airdrop rules of each project are unique, the underlying logic of successful participation is the same. Through in-depth exchanges with these "elders," we have summarized some interaction experiences that are universal in the Perp DEX arena. These methods are not only applicable to Lighter but can also be applied to other potential airdrop projects.

Chabusi's advantage on Lighter is his "linear narrative" in the arena; he has been focusing on the Perp DEX track from the beginning. "I have been watching the development of this track and have also benefited from its growth. As the track's valuation has increased, so has my wealth." He admits that luck plays a part, but what is more critical is his continuous attention to and accumulation of knowledge about the track.

"In September 2024, who could have known how this thing would turn out? If I say I was very bullish at that time, that would be a hindsight bias. I was simply interested in the product, found the whitepaper interesting, and even discussed technical details with a friend from Tsinghua who researches ZK."

This "use it, don't fur it" mentality actually allowed Chabusi to seize the earliest window. Therefore, Chabusi's advice is to participate more in low-cost early projects, continuously explore like gold miners in the gold rush era. "If the cost is too high, it becomes gambling. Keep the cost to a minimum, dare to explore something that others have not explored yet, and you may be pleasantly surprised."

This advice is actually very practical on Lighter because during the testnet phase, the Lighter team proactively sent direct messages to many users on Twitter to invite them to participate in the test, but many people missed out due to being overly cautious. "Indeed, many people did not expect that such a team would still use the relatively old-fashioned 1-on-1 direct message marketing. In fact, there are also some projects like this. They may use their official account to send you a direct message very early on, and as a result, you missed out. In fact, there are quite a few such cases." Chabusi said with a smile, "Everyone thinks, how could such a good opportunity come to me? It is precisely this kind of thinking that leads to missed opportunities."

Jiufei can also be said to be a "veteran" in the Perp DEX track, entering the crypto circle in 2016 and starting to play with contracts in 2018. From the earliest DYDX, GMX, to later Aevo, Drift, Hyperliquid, Lighter, he has experienced almost all mainstream products on the market, so it can be said that he pays great attention to product experience.

Hyperliquid is a typical case. Jiufei initially tried it based on recommendations from other CTs, but what really made him stay was the product experience. "The on-chain trading experience is particularly good. Compared to the DYDX batch of products, Hyperliquid is really exceptionally good. Although I have also played Drift and Aevo on Solana before, the smoothness of Hyperliquid impressed me."

This "only interact with user-friendly products" strategy has allowed him to avoid wasting time on many low-quality projects. Good products not only have a better user experience but also often mean that the project team is more serious, and the airdrop probability and value are also higher. "I never promote something I don't use myself; I only promote projects that I have deeply experienced and confirmed to be good."

By selecting good products, thoroughly researching the rules, and sharing the optimal solution when recommending to friends, he can also earn commissions in the process. His friends are more likely to use his referral code first, which is another major advantage for Jiufei in the Perp DEX track. He does not simply share referral links everywhere but studies the referral mechanisms of each platform very thoroughly.

"I will tell you all the mechanisms and rules of the platform, nothing hidden. His logic is very clear: in any case, if you want to boost a certain project, the question of whose link to use will always arise. "So I will tell you all the rules, let you find your optimal solution. You can get the best commission from me, and I can also get the referral reward, win-win."

Should I Sell $LIT or Keep Holding?

For this airdrop, Tea-Non-Think has not sold any $LIT so far, and has even bought some more: "I am more optimistic about its roadmap, building on Ethereum as an L2, and then integrating DeFi protocols like Aave to create a unified account. This seems more imaginative than Hyperliquid building a DeFi ecosystem on its own HyperEVM."

From a valuation perspective, he also made a comparison: "Hyperliquid's market cap is already quite large, so doubling from here would be relatively difficult. But on the other hand, I don't see a problem with $LIT doubling." Of course, he also emphasized that this is not investment advice. "After all, everyone's consensus is different, so it's hard to say. I'm not selling because my cost basis is very low, almost negligible. But if you are considering buying, I think you should think twice."

Like Tea-Non-Think, Leek-Fat also believes that his opportunity cost is minimal, so he has not sold his $LIT holdings, and based on his positive outlook on Lighter, he has gradually opened some long positions on $LIT.

"Most of the funds I used later to trade on other Perp DEXs were from the Hyperliquid airdrop, and I will also reinvest the $LIT airdropped by Lighter into the next Perp DEX." This "airdrop-to-airdrop" strategy allows Leek-Fat to comfortably invest in subsequent projects without worrying about losses.

Sam entered much later than Tea-Non-Think and Leek-Fat, starting to participate in Lighter around September 2025. As a professional rug pull studio player, after finishing rug pulling Aster, he was looking for new opportunities, so they turned their attention to Lighter.

As a professional arbitrage player and rug pull studio, Sam's strategy is the most aggressive: basically, he sells as soon as he receives an airdrop. His logic is simple: since the initial participation was for arbitrage, profits should be taken when available, rather than adopting an investor mindset and speculating on price appreciation.

In Sam's calculations, as long as they do not get liquidated, they are willing to incur a loss of around $20-30, to earn 1 to 2 points, including trading slippage, spreads, hedging costs, and more. In the OTC market, the price for 1 point in off-exchange trading was around $55, later rising to nearly $100.

"In other words, based on our calculations, Lighter's ROI is approximately 2-3x. Even if our participation was not early, there was still a clear arbitrage opportunity and a very favorable investment yield ratio, so we decided to participate with a large sum of money." Sam explained, allowing him to achieve good returns even though he entered the project later.

「When I entered the market, I had already calculated the cost and the return. Achieving a 2-3x return is my goal. Once the goal is reached, I exit without greed.」 The advantage of this strategy is that the risk is controllable, but the disadvantage is that you may miss out on a subsequent major price increase. However, for professional traders, a stable return is more important than betting on a large price increase.

Seeking the Next Alpha Opportunity

Having mastered these skills, the next natural question is: which Perp DEX projects are worth paying attention to and interacting with next? We asked these three "veterans" what projects they are currently following and received some interesting answers.

Teddy takes a cautious stance on the future opportunities in the Perp DEX space.

「I may rarely focus on Perpetual again because Hyperliquid is already very mature and user-friendly. In addition, projects like Aster and Lighter have already enjoyed 80% of the benefits in this space.」 He believes that users who enter later have already been "cleaned out," either they are people who missed out before or they are existing users who continue to benefit from the platform.

「This is actually a bit like the late-stage Layer2, a false data prosperity.」 Teddy frankly expresses his concerns about this phenomenon. When the airdrop expectations in a space are excessively consumed, most incoming users are there solely for volume farming, while genuine users become fewer and fewer, making it increasingly difficult for project teams to distinguish between real users and rug pullers.

His strategy has now shifted to finding new spaces that have not yet been extensively explored. 「Just like when Perp DEX was just starting out, now you have to look for the next direction that hasn't been hyped by KOLs.」 This approach is indeed worth emulating. When everyone is focused on one space, the true alpha opportunities often lie elsewhere. The reason why early Perp DEX participants made high returns was precisely because there were fewer participants, and the project teams valued real users. Once it turns into a mass volume game, this advantage disappears.

In contrast to Teddy, Charlie is still deeply involved in the Perp DEX space, but his selection criteria are very strict, only choosing projects with distinctive features and advantages.

「EdgeX is very good, mainly because it is very convenient for me to trade on my phone during my commute to work.」 Charlie values its mobile app experience, combined with the fact that it is incubated by the well-known market maker Arbor Group, which gives him confidence in its viability.

In April this year, Charlie simultaneously entered Lighter and Variational, each attracted to the unique features of the projects: Lighter's advantage lies in zero fees and extremely low latency, providing a great trading experience; while Variational adopts a unique Request for Quote mechanism instead of the common CLOB mechanism, offering distinct advantages and characteristics that other platforms do not have.

What impressed Buffett the most was Extended, Tokenized Reserves, Unified Margin System, future Fiat Onramp/Offramp support, integration with prediction markets, spot markets, lending, and other aspects to create a closed-loop trading ecosystem. Additionally, he specifically mentioned that the team is very reliable, the documentation is frequently updated, and the trading experience on the product pages is also very good. For more detailed introductions of these Perp DEXes, you can refer to BlockBeats' previous article: "After Lighter, the Next Batch of Worthwhile Perp DEXes".

In the not-so-new track of Perp DEX, there are still many opportunities for ordinary people to achieve significant returns through early participation, ongoing interaction, and rational investment. We have also found that several interviewees have actually provided several replicable paths for everyone.

Chabusi represents the in-depth early participant type of player. Not just trading volume, but truly accompanying a track, understanding the project, engaging with the community, and even providing advice and feedback to the team. These users often can discover good projects at the earliest and are also most likely to gain recognition from the team and receive additional rewards.

Buffett represents the professional trading player type. They have their own trading system, can sustain rug-pull costs through real trading, and can research thoroughly to earn referral rewards. The advantage of these players lies in sustainability, as they will not go bankrupt due to the failure of a single project. His "using airdrops to fund more airdrops" strategy has allowed him to establish a positive cycle in this track.

Sam represents the professional arbitrage player type. They precisely calculate costs and benefits, and even entering a project in the later stages can earn stable returns through arbitrage. The core abilities of these players are risk control, data analysis, and fund management.

Who will be the next Alpha opportunity? There is no standard answer to this question. But by staying vigilant, curious, and rational, when the next opportunity arises, perhaps we can all seize it.

This article is grateful to the interviewees: Chabusi, Buffett, Sam

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