The Citadel Alumn Reshaping The World Of Trading

Summary

Vlad Novakovski, founder and CEO of Lighter, discusses his journey from being recruited by Ken Griffin to building an on-chain exchange partnered with Robinhood. He shares how blockchain transparency would have prevented Madoff's Ponzi, details Lighter's technical innovations (custom ZK circuits that slash compute costs to 1%), and argues Lighter outperforms competitors like Hyperliquid on every axis. The conversation emphasizes Lighter's upcoming on-chain options product and a token model where all value accrues to the token, not equity.

• Vlad Novakovski recounts being recruited by Ken Griffin and learning about Madoff's Ponzi scheme in 2004.
• He explains how on-chain verification would have prevented Madoff by making trades publicly verifiable.
• Lighter pivot retained 80% of engineering staff by involving them in an internal startup competition.
• Custom ZK circuits for finance run at 1% of the compute cost of general-purpose circuits.
• He asserts Lighter beats competitors like Hyperliquid across cost, latency, verifiability, and security.
• Robinhood partnership validates Lighter's tech; on-chain options trading is targeted for Q3.
• All value at Lighter accrues to the token, with no future equity rounds planned.
• Ethereum is described as the most secure ledger for DeFi, serving as the on-chain clearing house.