Bitwise has launched its first exchange traded product tracking Lighter’s LIT token on Deutsche Börse Xetra, giving European investors access to the asset through conventional brokerage accounts.
Summary
- Bitwise has launched its Lighter Staking ETP on Deutsche Börse Xetra, giving European investors access to LIT through regular brokerage accounts.
- BLIT held roughly $4.74 million in assets backed by 1.01 million LIT at launch, making its current holdings small compared with LIT’s overall market value.
- LIT traded around $5 on Sept. 23 after gaining close to 9% over 24 hours, though the token was already moving higher before the ETP launch.
- The ETP could create more demand for LIT if it attracts sustained inflows, but its current size limits the immediate effect on the token’s supply.
- Staking has not started and will only begin once BLIT reaches sufficient assets under management, with Bitwise yet to disclose the required threshold.
According to Bitwise, the Bitwise Lighter Staking ETP began trading under the ticker BLIT on Sept. 23 and tracks the Kaiko Lighter Reference Rate. The product carries an annual total expense ratio of 0.85% and is issued by Bitwise Europe GmbH in Germany.
Bitwise Lighter ETP holds more than 1 million LIT
BLIT is physically backed by LIT held in cold storage, meaning the product holds the underlying cryptocurrency instead of providing synthetic exposure to its price.
Bitwise data showed 202,594 ETP units outstanding as of Sept. 23, backed by 1.01 million LIT. Assets under management stood at approximately $4.74 million, with each ETP unit representing just under 5 LIT.
The structure allows investors to gain exposure to LIT using a regular brokerage account without directly holding the cryptocurrency or managing private keys and wallets.
LIT serves as the native token of Lighter, an Ethereum layer 2 decentralized exchange focused on perpetual futures and other onchain markets. The platform uses zero knowledge proofs to verify order matching and liquidations while processing transactions away from Ethereum before submitting proofs to the network.
Lighter has expanded beyond crypto perpetuals by offering markets tied to assets such as Apple, Amazon and Tesla shares. Users gain price exposure through perpetual contracts instead of owning the underlying stocks.
The exchange generates revenue from professional market makers, liquidations and treasury income while charging retail traders no trading fees.
Lighter has become one of the more active platforms in the decentralized perpetual futures market. During a major crypto market selloff in February, the exchange processed roughly $7.5 billion in perpetual futures volume over 24 hours, accounting for close to 9.5% of activity tracked across the sector.
Could the Bitwise ETP impact Lighter price?
The launch gives LIT another potential source of demand because BLIT is backed by the underlying token, but the size of the product remains small compared with LIT’s overall market value.
Bitwise held 1.01 million LIT worth $4.74 million for BLIT as of Sept. 23. CoinGecko placed LIT’s market capitalization at roughly $1.27 billion on the same day, while trading volume stood near $84.7 million.
BLIT therefore represents a small portion of the existing LIT market at launch. Its effect on supply could become more noticeable if the ETP attracts sustained inflows that require more tokens to back newly created units.
LIT was already trading higher around the launch. CoinGecko data showed the token at roughly $5 on Sept. 23, with its value in several currency pairs up close to 9% over the previous 24 hours. LIT had closed Sept. 21 near $4.74 before moving to $5.07 on Sept. 22.
The timing means the ETP listing has arrived during an existing move in LIT, making it difficult to attribute the token’s gains solely to Bitwise’s product.
Previous developments have shown that new distribution channels can coincide with LIT price moves. When Lighter added Robinhood Chain collateral support, LIT gained roughly 15%, while the integration gave eligible Robinhood Wallet users direct access to Lighter perpetual futures.
A similar access point opened in August when Upbit added a LIT won market, allowing customers to buy the token directly against South Korea’s currency.
Supply remains another factor. LIT launched with 25% of its total supply distributed through a community airdrop. Half of the overall token supply was allocated to the ecosystem, while 26% went to the team and 24% to investors. Team and investor allocations were placed under a one year lockup followed by three years of linear vesting.
Bitwise’s current holdings are therefore small compared with the amount of LIT that could enter circulation under the token’s longer term distribution schedule.
Staking has not started for BLIT
Despite its name, the Bitwise Lighter Staking ETP is not currently staking the LIT backing the product.
Bitwise said staking will begin only after BLIT reaches sufficient assets under management to make staking operations efficient. The company has not disclosed the required asset level or a date for activation.
Until then, BLIT provides exposure only to LIT’s price, while investors continue to pay the product’s 0.85% annual fee.
If staking begins, rewards earned by the ETP are expected to accrue daily and be reflected in the amount of cryptocurrency represented by each unit. Bitwise said it will announce the start of staking separately.
LIT already has staking functions within the Lighter ecosystem. Staking can provide access to the Lighter Liquidity Pool, with each staked LIT allowing users to deposit up to 10 USDC into the pool. Unstaking carries a three day lockup period.
Lighter has tied its token economics to protocol activity as well. The project launched LIT in December with plans to direct protocol revenue between ecosystem growth and token purchases depending on market conditions.
The buyback mechanism has previously coincided with price moves. LIT climbed around 16% when Lighter’s treasury began token buybacks in January, when protocol fees began flowing toward market purchases.
Bitwise expands its onchain trading products
BLIT follows Bitwise’s move into investment products tracking tokens connected to decentralized perpetual futures platforms.
The asset manager launched the Bitwise Hyperliquid Staking ETP in Europe in April, giving investors exchange traded exposure to HYPE. Bitwise later introduced a U.S. Hyperliquid ETF in May.
The U.S. product recorded 16 consecutive days of inflows following its launch before posting its first daily outflow in June, showing how flows into exchange traded crypto products can change after their initial trading period. Crypto.news previously reported that the Bitwise ETF created another regulated demand channel for HYPE while exposing the token to changes in ETF flows.
Lighter and Hyperliquid have competed for activity in the decentralized perpetual futures market. Lighter recorded close to $198 billion in 30 day perpetuals volume toward the end of 2025, compared with roughly $166 billion for Hyperliquid at the time.
Bitwise Managing Director and Head of Europe Bradley Duke said the new ETP expands the firm’s European staking products into a platform bringing assets such as U.S. stocks onto blockchain infrastructure.
“As on-chain trading platforms increasingly bridge crypto and mainstream markets, we expect this kind of infrastructure to become more relevant to a broader range of investors,” Duke said.
Lighter founder and CEO Vladimir Novakovski said the platform was built to provide institutional grade perpetuals trading onchain using zero knowledge proofs for verifiable execution.
“We’re excited to bring LIT to European investors who don’t yet have a direct way into on-chain markets,” Novakovski said.
BLIT is domiciled in Germany and listed on Deutsche Börse Xetra under ISIN DE000A4AV9T5. Bitwise lists the product as a secured debt security with physical replication, no leverage and no asset lending.
