Robinhood to Offer US Perps via Bitstamp; Lighter Token Drops 20%

Robinhood's move matters less for the perps launch itself than for what it signals about distribution: a US brokerage funneling regulated perpetual demand into an exchange it owns, rather than into decentralized venues. Lighter's sharp repricing shows how much of its token value rested on an assumption that Robinhood would route order flow to a Perp DEX, an assumption now contradicted. The open question is whether other listed platforms follow Robinhood into proprietary perps venues, and whether that pressure extends beyond Lighter to the wider Perp DEX cohort.