LIT rose more than 20% to its highest level since January as Lighter detailed permanent token burns and shifted staking rewards away from exchange revenue toward ecosystem reserves.
LIT, the token of perpetuals exchange Lighter, rose more than 20% on Monday to about $2.6, its highest level since January, extending its weekly gain to roughly 40% and making it the top performer among the 100 largest cryptocurrencies. The move followed Lighter's tokenomics overhaul, which converts revenue-funded buybacks into permanent burns and revamps how staking rewards are financed. Lighter said it has repurchased about 15.5 million LIT, or roughly 6.3% of circulating supply, using exchange revenue since the token launch. Those buybacks are now set to reduce supply permanently through burns on the Ethereum mainnet, with the first burn planned in the weeks after the second quarter closes. The exchange said it may burn undistributed LIT rather than the exact repurchased tokens, calling the two approaches economically equivalent for holders. The staking model is also changing. Since the staking program launched in January, Lighter said it has distributed about 3.72 million LIT using pre-TGE revenue, including roughly 170,000 LIT through its fee credits program. That approach is ending, with future rewards to be funded from the project's remaining 250 million LIT in ecosystem tokens. The protocol is targeting a 6% annualized staking yield, which would imply about 7.5 million LIT distributed each year based on roughly 125 million LIT currently staked. Even after the rally, LIT remains well below its December record of $7.86.