Key notes
- Lighter has airdropped $675 million in Lighter Infrastructure Tokens (LIT) to early participants.
- Currently, 75% of recipients of an airdrop still retain their LIT.
- Despite the success, some entities have criticized the tokenomics of LIT crypto.
The cryptocurrency industry saw one of its biggest deals as Lighter airdropped $675 million in Lighter Infrastructure Tokens (LIT).
The recipients were the first participants in the decentralized exchange (DEX) protocol. Data shared on X by blockchain data visualization platform Bubblemaps suggests that around 75% of recipients still hold the altcoin.
Lighter sees investor confidence in LIT
On December 30, Lighter, a DEX known for offering perpetual futures trading, offered $675 million in LIT to its early participants.
One such recipient, who is a pseudonymous crypto investor, confirmed receiving a six-figure airdrop from the DEX.
Day 395: Received an airdrop of 6 figs from @Lighter_xyz
Kudos to everyone who didn’t clear this one.$LIT currently valuing 1 point around ~$54, well below OTC prices, but still a great result.
Very happy with how this turned out and especially happy to have covered a solid… pic.twitter.com/5obbXfMLtU
– Didi (@DidiTrading) December 30, 2025
So far, around 75% of recipients still hold the tokens, and another 7% have increased their holdings by purchasing more LIT tokens on the open market.
This is a strong signal of confidence in the long-awaited DEX token. In an X article, Bubblemaps noted that $30 million had been withdrawn from Lighter.
$LIT I just went live
• $675 million distributed to early participants
• $30M withdrawn from Lighter (only)gud technology pic.twitter.com/WeszphP8G1
– Bubble Maps (@bubblemaps) December 30, 2025
This is one of the largest token giveaways in crypto history. This was even bigger than 1inch Network’s $671 million airdrop, but still behind LooksRare’s $712 million airdrop from 2022.
The $675 million airdrop is still small compared to the $6.43 billion in value distributed via the Uniswap airdrop in 2020, which remains the largest in the industry to date.
Crypto data aggregator CoinGecko has claimed that the Lighter airdrop has now become the 10th largest airdrop by US dollar value in all of crypto history.
Lighter tokenomics calls for attention
Several critics questioned how the project divided its symbolic offering. 50% of LIT’s supply was reserved for the ecosystem, while the remaining 50% was allocated to the team and investors.
It should be noted that there is a one-year cliff and multi-year vesting schedule on these allocations.
Some entities say tokenomics resembles the model presented by Hyperliquid
THRESHING
$25.91
24h volatility:
0.9%
Market capitalization:
$6.17 billion
Flight. 24h:
$148.73 million
one of its main competitors.
Other people think the 50% team allocation was excessively high for a DeFi project.
Besides this LIT giveaway, one of the other airdrops the crypto industry saw this year was from World Liberty Financial, backed by President Donald Trump.
Last October, it announced the airdrop of 8.4 million WLFI tokens worth $1.2 billion, rewarding early participants in its $1 points program.
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Benjamin Godfrey is a blockchain enthusiast and journalist who enjoys writing about real-world applications of blockchain technology and innovations aimed at driving mainstream acceptance and global integration of the emerging technology. His desire to educate people about cryptocurrencies inspires his contributions to renowned blockchain media and sites.
