Lighter has announced a strategic partnership with Circle, adopting USDC as the default stablecoin across its entire product suite. This integration will encompass spot and perpetual trading, settlement, clearing, and user onboarding processes. Circle highlighted the growing importance of trusted dollar infrastructure in the expanding on-chain market. Lighter, which initially led perpetual DEX trading volumes late last year, aims to regain market momentum with this move. Currently, Lighter ranks fourth in 7-day perpetual trading volume, with approximately $8.7 billion, according to DefiLlama data.