Lighter accepts ether.fi’s weETH as collateral for perpetual futures

24 Oct 2026

24 Oct 2026, 05:02 UTC+02:00

Ethereum stakers can now keep earning while they trade on Lighter. The onchain perpetual futures exchange enabled ether.fi’s weETH as collateral on 23 October, letting holders back perp positions without selling their staking token.

The terms

According to Lighter’s asset data, weETH counts 70% of its index value toward usable margin, against 80% for ETH. Its liquidation threshold is 85%, compared with 90% for ETH. Supply is capped at 800 weETH per user and 1,000 weETH across the platform, far below ETH’s caps of 2,000 and 10,000. Multi-asset margin is available only to accounts with Unified Trading Accounts enabled.

weETH is the non-rebasing wrapped version of ether.fi’s eETH. The token balance stays fixed while the eETH it represents grows as staking rewards accrue, which makes it easier to use in DeFi. Rewards are variable and not guaranteed.

How liquidation works

Lighter combines collateral with the account’s USDC balance, including unrealized profit or loss, and checks the total against maintenance margin. A falling weETH price can shrink the buffer even if positions do not change. If an account breaches requirements, Lighter cancels open orders and can close perp positions and sell spot collateral through its order books. Partial liquidation of weETH must execute at no less than 95% of the index price, with a fee of up to 2%.

Ether.fi warns that third party integrations add oracle, liquidity and liquidation risks, and that redeeming weETH for ETH is not always immediate.

What it means for traders

• Capital efficiency with extra risk: a depeg of weETH against ETH could hit margin at the worst moment.
• Small caps limit size: the 1,000 weETH global cap means this is for modest positions.
• Centralized alternatives: BingX and OKX also offer multi-asset margin. See the BingX review and our exchange comparison.

Sources

• The Defiant via Cryptonews.net: Lighter Adds weETH as Perpetual Futures Collateral
• Lighter Docs: Multi-Asset Margin

News is for information only and is not financial advice. More crypto news