TL;DR:
- Lighter’s new RFQ system conceals the trade direction (buy or sell) from whitelisted market makers.
- The platform combines requests for quotes with its existing public order book in a hybrid format.
- The announcement coincides with a trend of competition against perpetual contract exchanges like Hyperliquid.
During Thursday’s session, the DeFi protocol Lighter announced the launch of the beta phase of its new Request-for-Quote (RFQ) feature for its real-world asset (RWA) markets.
Announcing Lighter RFQ in beta! Available on the web app on eligible RWA markets.
Enter and exit larger positions in one click with lower slippage and better pricing. pic.twitter.com/i8wsuTWOxH
— Lighter (@Lighter_xyz) May 20, 2026
With this launch, the platform seeks to facilitate the movement of large volumes of capital by reducing the impact on price slippage (slippage). According to data revealed by the Lighter protocol, the mechanism operates in such a way that, when initiating an RFQ, whitelisted market makers can view the asset and the transaction size, but not the trader’s intention to buy or sell.
The hybrid model versus pure systems
The firm’s technical proposal differs from recent options in the DeFi sector, such as Variational, whose structure is based exclusively on pure RFQ networks without public order books.
Data from Lighter’s report suggest that its hybrid approach maintains the traditional order book. Market makers inject additional liquidity into said public book after receiving the RFQ alert, which improves execution conditions for the user.
The final order is processed directly through the platform’s order book, allowing the trader to review the updated price estimate before giving final authorization to the transaction.
This design is projected to be most useful for institutional or large-scale operations that, under normal conditions, would disrupt price balance in markets with shallower depth.
Currently, RWA-based derivatives markets present themselves as a highly competitive space for perpetual contract exchanges. According to the industry’s current trend, requests for quotes provide large traders with cleaner entry and exit points in RWA markets, which typically record thinner liquidity compared to highly established cryptocurrency perpetuals.
The testing phase of this protocol will remain active over the coming weeks, a period during which the response of authorized market makers will be validated before its definitive deployment.
