Lighter launches EVM devnet with 1-second blocks and contract trading

Lighter has launched an EVM development network with one-second blocks that lets smart contracts manage trading orders, while its developer documentation lists mocked proofs and an unfinished asset-recovery mechanism among the test environment’s limits.

Axiom, which built the network with Lighter, announced the release in an Oct. 16 post by Yi Sun, describing an Ethereum-compatible environment connected to Lighter’s perpetual futures and spot markets. Its developer interface is public, although teams must request network access and are being admitted in groups.

Lighter EVM devnet uses test markets and a private settlement chain

According to Axiom, the release contains new instances of Lighter EVM and Lighter Core, the exchange’s order-matching and risk engine. The Core instance operates its own test markets, giving developers an order book against which to build and check applications.

The release settles to a development L1 instance. Lighter’s developer documentation specifies that a privately deployed chain stands in for Ethereum as the settlement and data-availability layer.

Lighter’s docs list three current limitations, including that “the devnet version uses mocked ZK proofs for L1 finalization.” The permissionless escape hatch, intended to let users recover assets if normal processing fails, is not fully functional on the devnet.

The documentation says requests that read Core data work only at the latest block. Support for reading earlier blocks is planned for a future update.

Axiom’s post describes the intended settlement architecture separately. OpenVM verifies Lighter EVM execution, while Lighter Core retains its existing custom zero-knowledge circuits. OpenVM’s aggregation system combines proofs from both environments into one proof for verification on Ethereum.

The two rollups use records of changes to their state to reduce the amount of data they need to publish on Ethereum, according to Axiom. Its architecture description includes an escape hatch for recovering assets during sequencer or prover failure, subject to the devnet limitation identified in Lighter’s docs.

Smart contracts can read Core data and submit trading orders

Axiom said contracts can read Lighter Core information synchronously through a built-in interface known as a read precompile. Supported queries cover accounts, balances, positions, orders, and market information.

Trading instructions follow a different process. Contracts can place, modify, and cancel orders on Core through asynchronous writes, which Axiom said execute in seconds. Contracts can then query the status of those instructions through the read interface.

The same connection supports transfers between Lighter EVM and Core. According to the launch post, developers can deposit from the development L1, move assets between the two Lighter environments, and withdraw back to L1.

Axiom named fast funding services, vaults, and request-for-quote platforms as applications developers could build using the connection to Core. The proposed applications would use the same Core connection that supports reading market information, submitting trading orders, and transferring assets between the two environments.

For development, Axiom said the network supports the standard Ethereum JSON-RPC interface, allowing teams to use Foundry, Hardhat, Viem and Ethers. The devnet targets the EVM at the Fusaka BPO2 fork, uses ETH to pay gas fees, and has a maximum block gas limit of 17 million.

Lighter’s chain configuration documentation separately lists a one-second EVM block time and the same maximum gas limit. It assigns separate identifiers to EVM and Core, with the Core identifier used when signing Core transactions. The EVM chain ID is 19,529, while Core uses 300 on the devnet.

The chain reference lists Safe wallet contracts, Multicall3 and Permit2 among third-party contracts included at launch for developer convenience. It distinguishes those tools from protocol-owned contracts that handle messaging, token transfers, and fees, with the latter forming part of the network’s own infrastructure.

Existing Robinhood integration provides a separate trading channel

Lighter already supplies perpetual futures infrastructure to Robinhood Wallet. In July 17 coverage, crypto.news previously reported that the Robinhood Wallet perpetuals integration used USDG as collateral and the asset in which contracts are priced.

The July account identified Lighter as an Ethereum layer-2 exchange founded by Vladimir Novakovski in 2022. It reported that Robinhood Ventures participated in a $68 million funding round in November 2025 at a valuation of roughly $1.5 billion.

That coverage listed US residents among those unable to access perpetual futures through Robinhood Wallet. The United Kingdom, Canada, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore were among the other excluded jurisdictions named at the time.

An Aug. 3 feature documented Lighter’s support for stock collateral through a July 19 announcement that tokenized stocks could be used for trading and borrowing on Robinhood Chain.

More recently, Oct. 11 coverage cited CoinDesk figures putting the chain’s seven-day perpetual futures volume at approximately $7.35 billion on Oct. 9, up 26%. The figures describe Robinhood Chain activity before the EVM devnet announcement.

Developer access is opening in groups

Axiom said developers can review the public documentation and the bridge-contract code released on GitHub. Teams seeking devnet access can apply by emailing [email protected], while feedback can be sent to the team or shared through Lighter’s EVM Discord channel.

The partners are onboarding developers in cohorts to respond quickly to problems, according to the announcement. Axiom said access would expand to all developers in the coming weeks.