Unveiling the Winners of the Lighter Airdrop: How Did They Achieve High Returns with Low Costs?

The Lighter TGE half a month ago allowed many to witness a new "wealth creation story."

According to community statistics, Lighter's airdrop ranks 10th in cryptocurrency history, with a total value as high as $675 million. On social media, screenshots showing profits flooded the feeds: some exchanged a cost of a few thousand dollars for a five-figure airdrop, while others received returns ten times beyond expectations due to sustained early interactions. Although the project team conducted a rather strict Sybil cleansing before the snapshot, most early participants and users still reaped the benefits and rewards.

Currently, the price of $LIT is stable around $2.5-$3. Although it hasn't replicated the frenzy seen during the TGEs of Hyperliquid and Aster, Lighter's success undoubtedly adds significant fuel to the Perp DEX track.

Behind this frenzy, Odaily was curious: how much did these users who achieved good returns actually invest? What were their strategies? Therefore, Odaily BlockBeats interviewed three early Lighter users with completely different backgrounds and strategies. Their stories might provide some inspiration for interacting with the next batch of Perp DEXs.

Their Costs and Returns

Chabusi (@mdzzi), a name almost universally known in the Chinese Perp DEX circle. As a major player on Hyperliquid, he was also the first test user and a top user in Lighter's Chinese community.

His connection with Lighter began during the testnet phase in September 2024, before Hyperliquid had even launched its token. "So I never even thought about an Lighter airdrop; I just thought it was fun," Chabusi recalled. At the time, he simply collected testnet faucet funds daily, started testing order placement after receiving 500 USDC in test tokens, spending no real money and not investing much effort.

Chabusi even became the user with the highest trading volume on Lighter's testnet. With such simple actions, he earned over ten thousand points by the end of the testnet.

The image shows Lighter staff member sebas privately messaging Chabusi to ask if the top-ranked account was his.

At that time, Lighter was still a relatively unknown small project. Team members often lurked in various Spaces to observe community output and actively DMed active users on CT, both in Chinese and English communities.

Chabusi's acquaintance with the Lighter team also began during a Twitter Space in September 2024. In that Space, Chabusi invited some well-known OGs from the Hyperliquid community, including the Turkish whale NMTD who later received a nearly $100 million airdrop, as well as active users from communities like Korea, to discuss the future of Perp DEXs and Hyperliquid's development. "Not many people came to listen, maybe twenty or thirty, but Lighter staff were also listening and found our discussion very interesting."

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

"I was quite wary at first, thinking why is this person so familiar, could they be a scammer?" Chabusi admitted that his initial caution prevented deeper conversation. However, as interactions continued, he found the team was genuinely serious, with solid backgrounds. He was particularly interested in their attempt to integrate ZK technology with Perp DEXs, leading him to start seriously participating in the project, communicating with the team about product details, and offering suggestions.

After the testnet concluded and the mainnet alpha phase launched, Chabusi naturally became one of the first users to deposit real funds for trading. "By then, I had actually reduced my trading, maybe just did a dozen or so trades, but they gave out a huge number of points." Most of his points came from the early stage. Even with reduced participation later, these early points secured him a decent airdrop allocation.

Interestingly, in January this year, the Lighter team even sent Chabusi an offer to lead Lighter's APAC market, which he declined. "On one hand, the product experience was still relatively basic at the time, with few tokens listed. Also, the market already had mature products like Hyperliquid, which absorbed most of the attention."

Besides Chabusi, Jiufeite (@Dex_Jiufeite) is another trader friend Odaily BlockBeats has known for a long time. In December 2024, after Hyperliquid's token launch performed well, Jiufeite decisively sold some HYPE and used the proceeds to continue trading on Lighter.

He started participating in Lighter in April 2025, shortly after the project launched, when point acquisition efficiency was still quite good—"roughly two to three thousand trading volume for one point." Jiufeite clearly remembers that the rule at the time was needing 300 points to get one's own referral code, which became his first small goal for sustained interaction.

Unlike many players who purely farmed volume for the airdrop, Jiufeite had his own "trading system," whose profits covered his costs on Lighter. Ultimately, Jiufeite earned 900 points. According to Lighter's distribution rules, 1 point corresponds to 20 $LIT. At a price of $3, his airdrop was worth approximately $54,000.

Lighter is a zero-fee Perp DEX, leading many to think farming Lighter was cost-free. However, Jiufeite found this didn't mean trading was completely without cost: there were still hidden costs like spreads and slippage.

He observed many using scripts for batch hedging trades to farm points but often overlooked a key issue: "If all trades are market orders for hedging, the slippage caused by latency might not be lower than transaction fees." He specifically compared Lighter's comprehensive execution costs with other DEXs, finding that when liquidity gradually decreased, actual trade execution costs increased significantly, especially for altcoins with relatively low trading volume on Lighter.

Replicable Interaction Techniques: Methods Ordinary People Can Use

Although each project's airdrop rules are unique, the underlying logic for successful airdrop farming is interconnected. Through in-depth conversations with these "veterans," we've summarized some universally applicable interaction experiences in the Perp DEX track. These methods are not only suitable for Lighter but can also be transferred to other potential airdrop projects.

Chabusi's advantage on Lighter stems from his "linear narrative" within the track; he has focused solely on the Perp DEX track since entering the space. "I've been watching this track develop and have benefited from its growth. As the track's valuation increased, so did my wealth." He admits there's an element of luck, but more importantly, it's about sustained attention to the track and accumulated understanding.

"In September 2024, who knew how this would turn out? If I said I was very optimistic back then, that would really be hindsight bias. I was simply interested in the product, found the whitepaper interesting after reading it, and even discussed technical details with a Tsinghua University friend researching ZK."

This mindset of "using not for farming" ironically allowed Chabusi to catch the earliest window. Therefore, his advice is to participate more in low-cost early-stage projects, constantly exploring like prospectors during the gold rush. "If the cost is too high, it becomes gambling. Keep costs to a minimum, be brave to explore things others haven't explored yet; you might get a pleasant surprise."

This advice is quite practical for Lighter. During the testnet phase, the Lighter team proactively DMed many users on Twitter to invite them to test, but many missed out due to excessive wariness. "Indeed, many didn't expect such teams would still use relatively old-school one-on-one DM methods for marketing. Actually, some other projects are like this too; they might DM you very early with their official accounts, and then you miss it. There have been quite a few such cases," Chabusi said with a laugh. "Everyone thinks, 'How could such a good opportunity come to me?' It's precisely this thinking that causes missed opportunities."

Jiufeite can also be called a "veteran" of the Perp DEX track, entering the crypto space in 2016 and starting with futures in 2018. From the earliest DYDX, GMX, to later Aevo, Drift, Hyperliquid, Lighter, he has tried almost all mainstream products on the market, so he places great emphasis on product experience.

Hyperliquid is a classic case. Jiufeite initially tried it based on recommendations from other CT accounts, but what made him stay was the product experience. "The on-chain trading experience was particularly good. Compared to that batch of products like DYDX, Hyperliquid was really exceptionally good. Although I had played with Drift and Aevo on Solana before, Hyperliquid's smoothness left a deep impression on me."

This strategy of "only interacting with usable products" helped him avoid wasting time on many low-quality projects. Good products not only offer better user experience but often indicate more serious project teams, with higher probabilities and values for airdrops. "I never promote things I don't use myself; what I promote are projects I've deeply experienced and confirmed are good."

Choosing good products, thoroughly researching the rules, and when recommending them to friends, sharing the optimal approach can also earn referral commissions. Friends are more likely to prioritize using his referral codes. This is another major advantage Jiufeite has in the Perp DEX track; he doesn't simply spam referral links everywhere but thoroughly researches each platform's referral mechanisms.

"I'll tell you all the mechanisms and rules of the platform, what it is, is what it is, no hiding." His logic is clear: Regardless, if you're going to farm a project, there's always the question of whose link to use. "So I tell you all the rules, letting you find your own optimal solution. You can get the best rebate from me, and I get referral rewards. Win-win."

Sell $LIT or Hold?

Regarding this airdrop, Chabusi hasn't sold his $LIT yet and has even bought some himself: "I'm quite optimistic about its roadmap: building an L2 on Ethereum and integrating DeFi like Aave for a unified account. This might be more imaginative than Hyperliquid building its DeFi ecosystem with its own HyperEVM."

From a valuation perspective, he also made a comparison: "Hyperliquid's scale is already very large; doubling again is relatively difficult. But comparatively, I think $LIT doubling is not a problem." Of course, he emphasizes this is not investment advice. "After all, everyone's consensus is different; it's hard to say. I'm not selling because my cost is very low, almost negligible. But if you're buying, I think you still need to think twice."

Like Chabusi, Jiufeite also believes his interaction cost was minimal, so he hasn't sold his $LIT holdings either. Based on his optimism for Lighter, he has also opened some $LIT long positions.

"The funds I later used to farm other Perp DEXs mostly came from the Hyperliquid airdrop, and the $LIT from the Lighter airdrop, when I sell later, will also be invested into the next Perp DEX." This strategy of "using airdrops to fund airdrops" allows Jiufeite to invest costs more comfortably in subsequent projects without worrying about losses.

Sam entered much later than Chabusi and Jiufeite, starting to farm Lighter around September 2025. As a professional airdrop farming studio player, after finishing with Aster, they were also looking for new opportunities and turned their attention to Lighter.

As professional arbitrageurs and a farming studio, Sam's strategy was the most aggressive, basically selling the airdrop immediately upon receipt. His logic is simple: since the initial participation was for arbitrage, one should exit promptly after realizing profits, rather than switching to an investor mindset to gamble on token price increases.

In Sam's precise calculations, without liquidation events, they spent roughly $20-30 in losses to obtain 1 to 2 points, including trading slippage, spreads, hedging costs, etc. In the OTC market, the price for 1 point was around $55, later even rising to nearly $100.

"That is, we calculated Lighter's ROI to be about 2-3 times. Even though we didn't participate early, there was still clear arbitrage space and a very suitable investment-output ratio, so we decided to participate with large funds," Sam explained. This allowed him to achieve decent returns even entering in the mid-to-late stages of the project.

"When I entered, I calculated the costs and returns; achieving 2-3 times was my goal. Once the target is reached, exit; don't be greedy." The advantage of this strategy is controllable risk; the disadvantage is potentially missing out on subsequent large price surges. But for professional farming players, stable returns are more important than gambling on big surges.

Finding the Next Alpha Opportunity

Having mastered these techniques, the next question naturally is: which Perp DEXs are worth paying attention to and interacting with next? We asked these three "veterans" what projects they are currently watching and got some interesting answers.

Chabusi is cautious about subsequent opportunities in the Perp DEX track.

"I might rarely pay attention to Perpetual DEXs anymore because Hyperliquid is already very mature and excellent. Plus, projects like Aster and Lighter have already captured 80% of this track's红利." He believes later entrants have been "filtered very clean"—either those who didn't farm earlier or veteran users who got rewards and continue farming.

"This is actually a bit like the later-stage Layer2 situation, a false data繁荣." Chabusi admits he is somewhat concerned about this phenomenon. When a track's airdrop expectations are over-exploited, most incoming users farm volume for farming's sake, while real users become fewer, making it harder for project teams to distinguish real users from airdrop farmers.

His strategy has shifted towards寻找 new, not yet大规模挖掘ed tracks. "Just like when Perp DEXs first emerged, now we need to find the next direction not yet hyped by KOLs." This思路 is indeed worth借鉴. When everyone is crowding one track, the real Alpha is often elsewhere. Early Perp DEXs had high returns precisely because few participated and project teams valued real users. Once it becomes全民 farming, this advantage disappears.

Unlike Chabusi, Jiufeite is still深耕 the Perp DEX track, but his筛选 criteria are very strict, only engaging with projects with distinct features and advantages.

"EdgeX is very good, mainly because it's convenient to operate during my commute." Jiufeite values its mobile APP experience,加上 its background being incubated by知名做市商 Arbor Group, which makes him think its可行性 is good.

Jiufeite entered both Lighter and Variational in April this year,看重 their respective特色: Lighter's advantages are zero fees and极低 latency, with确实不错的交易体验; Variational adopts a unique Request for Quote model instead of the common CLOB mechanism, with very obvious advantages and特点. This is something other platforms don't have.

Additionally, what left the deepest impression on Jiufeite was Extended, with tokenized vaults, unified margin mechanisms, future support for fiat on/off-ramps, and a vision to integrate prediction markets, spot trading, lending, etc., to close the entire trading ecosystem loop. He特别提到 the team is very靠谱, with frequent documentation updates and good trading experience on the product page. Detailed introductions of these Perp DEXs can be found in Odaily's previous article: "After Lighter, the Next Batch of Perp DEXs Worth Farming."

In the not-so-novel Perp DEX track, there are still many opportunities for ordinary people to obtain可观回报 through early participation, sustained interaction, and rational投入. We also found that the几位采访对象 actually provide several replicable paths.

Chabusi represents the深度早期参与型 player. Not just farming volume, but truly accompanying a track, understanding projects, participating in communities, and even providing suggestions and feedback to teams. Such users often discover good projects earliest and are most likely to gain team recognition and额外奖励.

Jiufeite represents the专业交易型 player. Has his own trading system, can sustain farming costs through real trading, and thoroughly researches referral mechanisms to earn commissions. The advantage of such players is sustainability; they won't lose their capital due to the failure of a single project. His "using airdrops to fund airdrops" strategy creates a positive循环 in this track.

Sam represents the专业套利型 player. Precisely calculates costs and收益, achieving stable returns through arbitrage even when entering in mid-to-late stages. The core abilities of such players are risk control, data精算, and资金管理.

Who is the next Alpha opportunity? There's no standard answer. But staying警觉, staying curious, staying rational—when the next opportunity appears, perhaps we can all seize it.

This article thanks the interviewees: Chabusi, Jiufeite, Sam