Lighter and Mantle networks see surge in whale activity as altcoin volatility rises

Lighter and Mantle, two Ethereum-adjacent networks with very different value propositions, are both experiencing their highest whale transaction activity in six months, according to on-chain data from Santiment.

Lighter’s whale magnets: buybacks and volume

Lighter operates as a zero-knowledge rollup built specifically for decentralized perpetual futures trading on Ethereum, where the ZK infrastructure handles order matching and throughput.

The protocol has been running an aggressive buyback program, repurchasing approximately 15.5 million of its native LIT tokens. That represents roughly 6.3% of the total token supply, funded directly from treasury revenues.

In a single seven-day window in early January, wallets accumulated over $3.8 million worth of LIT. One particularly notable wallet held around 13.2 million LIT, valued at approximately $40 million at the time.

Lighter’s platform surpassed $200 billion in 30-day trading volume on its perpetual DEX, a figure that puts it ahead of several more established competitors. The infrastructure can reportedly process tens of thousands of orders per second with millisecond latency and zero fees for retail traders.

Mantle’s quiet rise in the layer 2 wars

Mantle Network positions itself as a modular Ethereum Layer 2 solution with a primary emphasis on liquidity and capital efficiency.

Santiment data flagged Mantle’s token, MNT, as the number one network for increases in transactions worth $100,000 or more back in August 2025.

The Layer 2 landscape is crowded. Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, and zkSync all compete for developer attention and user capital. Mantle’s differentiator has been its treasury, one of the largest in crypto, which gives it significant runway to incentivize adoption and build partnerships.

What this means for investors

For Lighter specifically, the combination of a supply-reducing buyback program and surging trading volume creates a relatively straightforward bull case. If the protocol continues generating revenue sufficient to fund buybacks while maintaining its volume trajectory, LIT holders benefit from both reduced supply and growing fundamental utility.

One pattern worth watching: new wallets have been making multi-million-dollar initial investments in both tokens. Fresh wallet creation paired with large first deposits is a classic on-chain signal of institutional or high-net-worth entry, not existing holders reshuffling positions.

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