Justin Sun-linked wallets build 5% stake in Lighter’s LIT token with $33M purchase

Justin Sun-linked wallets accumulated $33M in LIT, pushing his stake above 5% of circulating supply after Lighter’s token launch.

A cluster of wallets linked to Justin Sun has quietly built a sizable position in Lighter’s newly launched LIT token.

On-chain data suggests the purchases were tied to liquidity provisioning rather than airdrop farming.

Wallet activity points to structured LIT accumulation

According to a Jan. 1 analysis by on-chain researcher MLM, four wallets associated with Justin Sun each received 1.6 million LIT shortly after the token generation event, totaling roughly 6.4 million LIT, valued at about $17 million at the time.

The wallets were funded between 34 and 50 minutes after Lighter’s airdrop allocation form closed, with no evidence that they participated in earlier points farming.

Further activity shows Sun deposited close to $200 million into Lighter’s Liquidity Provider Program. He later withdrew around $38 million, using approximately $33 million of that amount to purchase an additional 13.25 million LIT on the market.

In total, the wallets now hold 14.89 million LIT, worth roughly $39.8 million, giving Sun control of about 5.32% of the circulating supply and 1.33% of total supply. Around $5.5 million remains in spot balances tied to the same cluster.

The data also hints that similar arrangements may exist for other large LLP participants. One wallet that deposited $50 million USDC into the program roughly a month earlier received 874,875 LIT, though attribution in that case is less certain due to indirect transfers.

LIT under pressure post airdrop

LIT launched on December. 30 as the native token of Lighter, a high-performance perpetual futures DEX built as an Ethereum (ETH) zk-rollup. The token debuted with a 25% airdrop to early users and liquidity providers, instantly pushing the circulating supply to roughly 250 million tokens.

Tokenomics divides the supply equally between insiders and the ecosystem, with 24% going to investors and 26% going to the team. Both parties are subject to a one-year cliff and three years of linear vesting. LIT captures value through fee recycling, buybacks, staking, governance, and access to advanced features.

The ecosystem and insiders split the supply equally. Investors own 24% and the team owns 26%, and both allocations are locked for a year before vesting linearly over the next three years. LIT will capture value from the protocol through mechanisms such as fee recycling, buybacks, staking, governance, and access to higher-level features.

Since its launch, LIT has been under pressure due to liquidity withdrawals and post-airdrop profit-taking, which is a common occurrence for new tokens with wide distributions. The token debuted at roughly $3.40 during initial trading, but quickly experienced volatility, sliding about 30% shortly after to around $2.45–$2.80.

With $3.7 billion in 30-day volume and roughly $101 million in annualized fees, Lighter continues to report strong usage metrics despite volatility. Long-term outlook depends on adoption, revenue sharing execution, and DeFi perp market growth.