Buybacks and Telegram fuel LIT’s 40% surge, but can the rally extend itself?

Peter Thiel-backed Lighter perpetual DEX has accelerated the buyback of its native LIT token. On 08 April, the project announced it had bought and locked 10 million LIT. This translated to 4% of the current circulation of 250 million tokens since its debut last December. 

A month ago, the buyback program was at 3% of the circulating supply. At its current pace, the project is buying back about 1% of supply or an average of 2.4 million LIT per month. If the trend persists, it would take the DEX about 10 months to lock the entire current circulating supply. 

Worth pointing out, however, that LIT’s total supply is capped at 1 billion, and only 250 million LIT tokens were released after the debut. The first wave of unlocks will begin in December 2026. 

In the meantime, how is the market responding to the aggressive LIT buyback though? 

Telegram spikes Lighter traction

Well, the reception has been very positive and bullish. Since late March, the token has recovered by over 40%, rising from a record low of $0.74 to above $1.13. 

LIT’s uptrend momentum was further boosted by a recent Telegram integration. The privacy-focused messenger will use Lighter to power its native trading with up to 50x leverage across crypto and non-crypto assets. 

It’s been about a week since the Telegram integration. So, AMBCrypto dug deeper to check whether the partnership is driving meaningful traction for the DEX or not. 

According to Lightalytics data, Lighter recorded about 40K new registered users after the Telegram update.   

Will LIT extend the 40% rally?

However, the Open Interest (OI), which tracks users’ opened bets, posted only a slight improvement.

The OI rose by about $40 from $675 million to $717 million. Interestingly, the little traction saw daily revenue rise from $35K to over $100K over the last seven days. 

Since most of the revenue is being channeled to buybacks, any further improved traction could help bolster LIT’s recovery. 

Even so, a trader recently cautioned that the rally had hit the 200-EMA (Exponential Moving Average) – A key dynamic resistance that may derail bulls in the near-term. An extended rally could only be confirmed if bulls flip the 200-EMA into support. 

Final Summary

• Lighter’s buyback program has hit 10 million LIT or 4% of the circulating supply of 250 million. 
• Aggressive buyback program and Telegram integration fueled LIT’s 40% rally in April.