Back to blog
Yi Sun
Author
Yi Sun
Published
16 Oct 2026
Category
Partnership

Announcing the Lighter EVM public devnet

Announcing the Lighter EVM public devnet

We are excited to announce the public devnet release of Lighter EVM, the EVM-equivalent rollup we are building with Lighter, powered by OpenVM. Lighter EVM can natively access the liquidity of Lighter’s markets, allowing developers to compose general-purpose applications with the existing perps and spot markets on Lighter.

Starting today, the Lighter EVM developer interface is public. We encourage you to check out the developer docs, send us feedback, and get involved in the Lighter EVM Discord channel. We are now onboarding developers in cohorts to ensure fast response to any issues, and we will expand access to all developers in the coming weeks. To sign up for devnet access, reach out by email at evm@lighter.xyz.

How Lighter EVM Works

Lighter EVM runs as a sidecar to Lighter Core, the existing perps and spot exchange with a highly optimized order matching and risk engine. Lighter EVM offers EVM-equivalent execution and settles jointly to Ethereum with Lighter Core, verified by a zero-knowledge (ZK) proof. Both rollups use state diffs to optimize DA costs on Ethereum.

Lighter EVM makes Lighter programmable by allowing EVM smart contracts to interoperate with Lighter Core through synchronous reads and asynchronous writes. Smart contracts can synchronously read the state of Lighter Core through a read precompile, which supports queries for information about accounts, orders, and more. Writes to Lighter Core are asynchronous and enable transferring tokens between Lighter EVM and Core as well as placing, modifying, and cancelling orders on Lighter Core from EVM smart contracts. Together, these interop features allow smart contract developers to build programmable applications like fast onramps, vaults, and RFQ platforms on top of Lighter Core.

Lighter EVM execution is verified by the OpenVM zero-knowledge virtual machine, while Lighter Core execution retains its existing verification infrastructure through Lighter’s custom ZK circuits. To jointly settle Lighter EVM and Lighter Core and reconcile the rollup interop, we use OpenVM aggregation to combine proofs from both into a single proof that is verified on Ethereum. Finally, users retain their ability to recover their assets in the event of sequencer or prover failure through a permissionless escape hatch.

The Devnet Release

This devnet release includes new instances of Lighter Core and Lighter EVM interoperating and settling to a devnet L1 instance. The devnet Lighter Core instance runs its own test markets to provide developers a live order book to build and test against. For teams with devnet access, developers can:

  • Deploy with standard tooling: Lighter EVM supports a standard Ethereum JSON-RPC interface, so Foundry, Hardhat, Viem, and Ethers work out of the box. The devnet targets the EVM as of the Fusaka BPO2 fork, uses ETH for gas, and has a 17M block gas limit with a 1-second block time.
  • Read Lighter Core from EVM contracts: Query account information, balances, positions, orders, and market metadata from Lighter Core through the read precompile.
  • Trade from EVM contracts: Place, modify, and cancel orders on Lighter Core. Writes execute asynchronously in seconds, and contracts can query their status through the read precompile.
  • Move assets between Lighter Core and Lighter EVM: Deposit from the devnet L1, transfer between Lighter Core and Lighter EVM, and withdraw back to L1.

Together with this release, we are sharing:

  • The developer docs: Read the public documentation for Lighter EVM, including the new read precompile for synchronously reading Lighter Core and the list of supported write transactions from Lighter EVM to Lighter Core.
  • The Lighter EVM bridge contracts: Check out the smart contracts for the Lighter EVM bridge, now available on GitHub.

What’s Next

We look forward to the first applications built on Lighter EVM that compose with perps and spot trading on Lighter. If you’d like to build on Lighter EVM, request devnet access. If you have any feedback on the developer interface, please get in touch or share your feedback in the Lighter EVM Discord channel.

In the meantime, follow us on X for more updates as we build toward the mainnet release. To learn more about OpenVM, check out the OpenVM docs and GitHub.

Other articles

Finding a vulnerability in Starknet’s zero-knowledge proof system with our AI auditorFinding a vulnerability in Starknet’s zero-knowledge proof system with our AI auditor
Announcement

Finding a vulnerability in Starknet’s zero-knowledge proof system with our AI auditor

We discovered a soundness vulnerability in Starknet’s zero-knowledge proof system, stwo, using our AI auditor.

27 Jul 2026
OpenVM is live on EthProofsOpenVM is live on EthProofs
Product

OpenVM is live on EthProofs

OpenVM is now proving Ethereum mainnet blocks live on EthProofs.

23 Oct 2025
Formally Verifying OpenVM's Keccak and SHA-2 CircuitsFormally Verifying OpenVM's Keccak and SHA-2 Circuits
Product

Formally Verifying OpenVM's Keccak and SHA-2 Circuits

We expanded OpenVM’s formal verification coverage to include the Keccak and SHA-2 extensions, proving in Lean that each circuit correctly constrains the relevant hash computation.

19 Aug 2026
Releasing OpenVM to ProductionReleasing OpenVM to Production
Product

Releasing OpenVM to Production

Announcing the first production release of OpenVM.

31 Mar 2025
Proving Ethereum in Real Time with OpenVM 2.0Proving Ethereum in Real Time with OpenVM 2.0
Product

Proving Ethereum in Real Time with OpenVM 2.0

OpenVM 2.0 is now proving Ethereum mainnet at a p99 level with 100 bits of provable security and sub-300 kB proof size.

29 Jan 2026
Announcing Axiom's $20 Million Series A RoundAnnouncing Axiom's $20 Million Series A Round
Announcement

Announcing Axiom's $20 Million Series A Round

We’ve raised $20 million, led by Paradigm and Standard Crypto, to give developers access to the power of zero-knowledge proofs.

25 Jan 2024
Formally Verifying the OpenVM RISC-V ExtensionFormally Verifying the OpenVM RISC-V Extension
Product

Formally Verifying the OpenVM RISC-V Extension

The OpenVM RV32IM extension has been formally verified in Lean by Nethermind Research with support from an Ethereum Foundation grant.

10 Feb 2026
Powering Lighter EVM with OpenVMPowering Lighter EVM with OpenVM
Partnership

Powering Lighter EVM with OpenVM

Announcing our collaboration with Lighter to build Lighter EVM, an EVM-equivalent rollup powered by OpenVM 2.0 for native interoperability with Lighter markets.

30 Jan 2026
Introducing OpenVMIntroducing OpenVM
Product

Introducing OpenVM

Announcing the first release of OpenVM, a novel open-source zkVM framework prioritizing modularity and extensibility.

16 Dec 2024
OpenVM GPU is live on the Axiom Proving APIOpenVM GPU is live on the Axiom Proving API
Product

OpenVM GPU is live on the Axiom Proving API

Announcing support for OpenVM v1.4.0 and distributed GPU proving on the Axiom Proving API.

02 Sep 2025
Releasing OpenVM 2.0 to ProductionReleasing OpenVM 2.0 to Production
Product

Releasing OpenVM 2.0 to Production

We are excited to release OpenVM 2.0 to production, combining state-of-the-art performance with enterprise-ready security and new features for proof aggregation.

10 Jul 2026
Introducing the Axiom Proving API BetaIntroducing the Axiom Proving API Beta
Product

Introducing the Axiom Proving API Beta

Announcing the private beta launch of the Axiom Proving API.

13 May 2025
Faster Real-Time Proving with OpenVM 2.0 BetaFaster Real-Time Proving with OpenVM 2.0 Beta
Product

Faster Real-Time Proving with OpenVM 2.0 Beta

We are announcing OpenVM 2.0 Beta, now the fastest zkVM on Ethproofs.

15 Apr 2026
Proving Ethereum in Real Time on 4 GPUsProving Ethereum in Real Time on 4 GPUs
Product

Proving Ethereum in Real Time on 4 GPUs

We are excited to announce OpenVM 2.1 Preview, an early look at OpenVM’s performance trajectory.

29 Jul 2026