Perpetual strategies

What a strategy contains

A strategy is a list of perp positions the vault should run. Each position picks a market, long or short direction, share of the vault’s trading balance, and leverage.

The strategy is saved onchain with a version number. Updating it creates a new version while the token, vault, and Lighter account stay the same.

Strategy positions

Each position contains:

Market ID

The configured Lighter perpetual market. IDs are validated against the protocol’s market registry.

Direction

Long or short.

Equity allocation

The percentage of the vault’s trading balance assigned to it.

Requested leverage

The requested leverage, such as 1×, 2×, or 5×.

A market can appear only once. Every position needs an allocation, and all allocations together can use up to 100% of the trading balance. Anything left over stays as reserve.

Example portfolio

The following profile uses three markets and leaves 10% of equity as reserve:

Allocation controls how much of the trading balance goes to a position. Leverage then increases its market exposure. For example, 50% allocation at 2× leverage targets roughly 100% of the account’s equity as position size.

Approved markets

Perpetuals keeps an approved list of Lighter perp markets. Each entry stores its Lighter market ID, symbol, decimal precision, and maximum leverage.

The launch flow compares that list with Lighter before building the transaction, so the selected market ID and symbol refer to the same market.

Lighter spot markets are excluded. Only perpetual markets can be strategy legs.

Leverage limits

Leverage is expressed as a multiple but stored in basis points. For example, 20,000 leverage BPS represents 2×.

The permitted request is bounded by:

1. the leverage supported by the Lighter market;
2. any lower cap configured by Perpetuals;
3. the profile-validation rules in the authority hub.

Final execution size also depends on available margin, order-book liquidity, position state, price, funding, and venue rules.

Strategy activity

A strategy can be turned on or off. When it is on, the keeper works toward the saved positions. When it is off, the keeper works toward removing exposure.

Turning it on or off follows the same control rules as changing its markets, direction, allocation, or leverage. Position changes are then carried out on Lighter.

Execution on Lighter

Each launched token has a dedicated custody contract that owns a Lighter master account. An API key in the configured account slot is used by the execution service to submit orders.

The operating loop can:

• read the active profile and account state;
• calculate target position sizes from account equity;
• compare targets with current positions;
• place, replace, or cancel orders;
• reduce exposure when risk or policy requires it;
• request secure withdrawals back to custody.

Strategy changes

Every saved strategy change increases its version number and starts a one-hour cooldown before another change can be saved.

Who can make the change depends on the launch mode:

• Fixed strategies follow the Fixed-mode update rules.
• Delegated strategies are updated by the active manager.
• DAO strategies are updated only by executing a successful stake-weighted proposal.

Pending, defeated, expired, or cancelled DAO proposals do not change the active profile.

Profit and loss

Perpetual positions can generate realized and unrealized gains or losses. They can also incur trading fees, funding payments, slippage, and liquidation loss. The onchain router does not calculate live PnL from positions.

Profit is recorded onchain after USDG returns through custody to the router. The keeper marks how much of the return is original trading capital, and the router records the remainder as profit.

Built-in limits

Perpetuals applies these limits to every strategy:

• registered and enabled market IDs;
• per-market leverage caps;
• portfolio allocation validation;
• a maximum number of legs;
• a profile-change cooldown;
• bounded Lighter deposit amounts;
• restricted keeper and gateway roles;
• pause and cancel-order controls.