# Building Infrastructure for the Future of Finance on Top of Ethereum | Vlad Novakovski (Lighter)

- Channel: [ETHGlobal](https://streameth.org/ethglobal)
- Date: 2026-07-09
- Duration: 14:00
- Topics: Lighter, Vlad Novakovski, ETHConf, Ethereum, L2, perps, spot trading, order book, zero knowledge proofs, ZK circuits, verifiable execution, sequencer, prover cluster, proof aggregation, high frequency trading, throughput, TPS, latency, non-custodial, escape hatch, first in first out, liquidations, fairness, L2Beat, tokenized stocks, permissioned assets, onchain KYC, LighterVM, Axiom, TradFi, DeFi, decentralized exchange, DEX, composability, proving costs, NASDAQ, institutional trading
- Watch: https://streameth.org/watch/yt-ZD_HzN0aUSM
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD_HzN0aUSM

## Description

In this talk, Vlad Novakovski, founder and CEO of Lighter, digs under the hood of how his high performance trading platform operates at scale on top of Ethereum. Coming from a TradFi background, Vlad frames Lighter as part of the broader story of TradFi and DeFi merging. Lighter is used to trade primarily perps but also spot assets, and has been operating for a year and a half. The core concept is that every execution is verifiable by proof. Since finance has a relatively small number of primitives (order books, limit and market orders, cancels, liquidations, funding) compared to a general purpose computer, Lighter built a custom L2 for finance that runs at NASDAQ like throughput while keeping everything verifiable. Every order and cancel is signed and processed by a currently centralized sequencer, but because all activity is proven with zero knowledge proofs, it matters less whether the sequencer is centralized since anything it does must follow the rules encoded in the ZK circuits.

Vlad explains that a prover cluster of over 10,000 to 15,000 machines generates proofs behind the real time trading, aggregating up to 800,000 actions into a single proof posted on Ethereum L1. The rules are public and compiled into a succinct verifier, so first in first out ordering, liquidation logic, and market fairness are guaranteed, and if even one transaction in a batch of 500,000 is matched incorrectly, the code on Ethereum rejects the whole batch. He shares metrics including a peak 24 hour period of 811 million transactions, average TPS above 6,000 with spikes toward 20,000, latency below 200 milliseconds (the lowest of any decentralized exchange), 14,000 to 15,000 daily active users, $140 billion in volume over three months, and $7.5 million in revenue. He highlights Lighter's non custodial design with an escape hatch letting users recover assets through Ethereum even if Lighter stops working, the ability to customize rules for permissioned assets and tokenized stocks with dividends and splits, and independent verification of Lighter's full history by L2Beat. He emphasizes that the custom ZK circuits keep proving costs around 10 to 20% of revenue, echoes Vitalik's point that the most efficient L2 needs the most secure L1 underneath, and closes by inviting developers to build on LighterVM, being developed with the Axiom team.

00:00 Introduction
00:41 TradFi and DeFi Merging at ETHConf
01:05 What Lighter Is: Perps and Spot Trading
01:29 Focusing on the Infrastructure Side
02:11 Why Finance Has Few Primitives
02:32 Building a Custom L2 for Finance
03:05 Why Security and Verifiability Matter
03:33 How Signed Orders and the Sequencer Work
04:13 The Prover Cluster of 15,000 Machines
04:38 Aggregating Proofs and Posting to Ethereum L1
05:12 Public Rules: First In First Out
05:45 Why Fair Liquidation Rules Matter
06:19 Peak Stats: 811 Million Transactions in a Day
06:51 Thousands of Provers on Mixed Infrastructure
07:15 Why It Doesn't Matter Who Generates the Proof
07:53 Non-Custodial Design and the Escape Hatch
08:57 Extending Rules to Asset Administration
09:30 Custom Rules for Permissioned and Tokenized Assets
10:02 Fairness Proven by Math Block by Block
10:21 A Permanent Record on Ethereum
10:21 L2Beat Independently Verifies Lighter's History
10:55 Daily Active Users and TPS Metrics
11:21 Sub 200 Millisecond Latency
11:45 The Most Efficient L2 Needs the Most Secure L1
11:45 Economics: $140 Billion Volume, $7.5M Revenue
12:18 Why Custom Circuits Keep Proving Costs Low
12:38 Strong Margins and Low Cost Structure
13:14 The Magic of Proving Finance With Math
13:40 LighterVM and Composability With Axiom
13:40 Closing and Call to Developers

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  

*ETHConf 2026*
ETHConf is a 3 day event for founders, industry leaders, and builders who are excited about the possibilities of building on top of Ethereum.

Connect with 2,000+ top innovators in crypto, finance, technology, and policy at our inaugural three-day event packed with showcases, demos, partnerships, and conversations shaping the future of the global economy.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  

✅ *Follow ETHConf*
X: https://x.com/ethconf
Website: https://ethconf.com

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  

🎟️ Get your early bird tickets for ETHConf 2027: https://ethconf.com/2027#tickets
🎤 View the full ETHConf 2026 Speaker Schedule: https://ethconf.com/schedule

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _