The LIT Token jumped significantly in response to signals from the Lighter team hinting a possible protocol buyback approach. The positive development occurs at a very important stage for the newly launched token, which has shown dramatic market volatility since its launch.
The token rose by nearly 17%, which was a substantially better performance compared to the overall crypto market. A sudden increase in activity occurred after rumors started that the protocol was buying back its own token using funds from its treasury.
Investors noticed unusual activity in the project’s treasury system, sparking speculation. Although the project did not confirm any buybacks, the price change suggest a shift in investor sentiment.
Lighter responded to these rumors on X. They advised the community to refer to its transparent treasury wallet. It further indicated that the costs within the protocol, as well as the buyback, are also visible on the block explorer.
Lighter treasury account – https://t.co/0lTfPYyLJr
— Lighter (@Lighter_xyz) January 5, 2026
All this does is reaffirm the promise of putting revenues evenly into the ecosystem and repurchases of the token.
Looking at the data on the, it was clear that the treasury has an increased number of LIT tokens. The wallet for the protocol-managed account currently holds 180,758 tokens.
This comes just a week after the protocol launched the LIT token and gave away 25% of its total supply in an airdrop.
While the airdrop generated a lot of excitement, the market changed quickly. The token’s value dropped by nearly 30% right after its release as investors rushed to take their profits.
Furthermore, blockchain researchers identified a series of wallets that could be associated with Lighter, which had allegedly received a significant volume of the airdropped tokens. An entity allegedly pumped millions in liquidity well before the project was launched and cashed out its tokens.
Other than the speculations, the actions of large traders have been partly responsible for the observed price rally. On-chain data also shows a huge whale transaction involving the sale of wrapped Bitcoin, together with a USDC deposit of millions of value into the Lighter. This was eventually used to purchase over a million LIT tokens.
A whale sold 52.1 $WBTC ($4.86M), deposited $3.36M $USDC into #Lighter, and bought 1,119,001 $LIT at a price of $3.https://t.co/QOLOBpzNA1 pic.twitter.com/LfN4OWSFFO
— Onchain Lens (@OnchainLens) January 5, 2026
The rally comes under the backdrop of heavy competition on the decentralized Perps platforms. Hyperliquid was one of the leading players on the market despite the rising prominence of others in 2025.
The platform gained 609,000 new users in one year and processed about $2.9 trillion in trading volume. During this time, the total trading in decentralized perpetual exchanges grew by 40%.
However, its market share decreased because of other platforms like Aster and Lighter, which hold 15.9% and 10.3% of open interest, respectively.
In addition, MetaMask recently introduced Hyperliquid-powered perpetual futures directly in its wallet. This allows users to trade futures without leaving the app.
