desk of contents
What does the Perp DEX scenario seem like now? What’s Aster and the way does it work? What’s Aster aiming for? What’s holding it again? So can it occur?
aster is the second-largest perpetual futures DEX by each day quantity, and it's not slowing down. With a normalized 24-hour quantity of $2.136 billion and a multi-chain technique that places CZ within the nook and units it aside from the remainder, Aster is firmly within the high spot. Nonetheless, Hyperliquid nonetheless maintains a snug lead at $4.275 billion per day, leaving questions concerning the sustainability of buying and selling volumes. It's right here>What’s the present standing of Perp DEX?
The decentralized perpetual futures market has critical penalties. Complete 24-hour quantity throughout all protocols is $19.121 billion and open curiosity is $13.41 billion as of February 20, 2026.
superfluidity dominates the record with each day buying and selling quantity of $4.275 billion and open curiosity of $5.249 billion. Aster follows in second place with a each day worth of $2.136 billion and an open curiosity of $1.771 billion. Behind them, edgeX ($1.637 billion), Lighter ($980 million), and ApeX Protocol ($1.19 billion) spherical out the highest 5.
Aster's 24-hour buying and selling quantity represents roughly 11% of the overall PERP DEX market. Weekly buying and selling quantity reached $16.387 billion, which continues to be behind Hyperliquid's $29.62 billion, however reveals constant upward momentum. Cumulative transaction worth general exceeds $4 trillion, and each day charges have ranged from $13 million to $100 million in latest months.
This platform has already upset Hyperliquid many occasions to take the highest spot. In October 2025, Astor recorded a 24-hour buying and selling quantity of $41.7 billion. In November, it once more reached $12 billion in a single day. These spikes usually are not sustained, however show that the infrastructure can deal with the load.
Perp Quantity High 5 (defillama.com)
What’s Aster and the way does it work?
Aster was launched in late 2024 by the merger of yield protocol Astherus and perpetual buying and selling platform APX Finance. Works throughout your complete vary $BNB Chain, Ethereum, Solana, and Arbitrum provide each spot and perpetual buying and selling with as much as 1001x leverage.
3 buying and selling modes
The platform runs three buying and selling modes. Perpetual mode (Professional) provides an orderbook interface with ample liquidity and low commissions of 0.01% maker and 0.035% taker. 1001x mode gives on-chain MEV-resistant perpetual buying and selling with one-click execution for prime leverage trades. Spot mode handles cross-chain spot transactions.
One of many standout options is Aster's privacy-focused Hidden Orders, designed to forestall liquidation looking and MEV extraction. The protocol additionally helps yield-producing collateral, permitting customers to earn whereas buying and selling.
defletokenomics
tokenomics Lean deflation. $ASTER has a set most provide and 80% of platform charges go in the direction of buybacks and burns. Up to now, 177 million tokens (9% of post-write provide) have been burned. Day by day buybacks repeatedly attain between $400,000 and $500,000, and token shortage is instantly associated to platform utilization.
Person numbers look stable on paper. In accordance with the venture's Dune dashboard, it has 9.3 million cumulative customers, $1.1 billion in TVL, and $1.8 billion in open curiosity.
What’s Aster aiming for?
Aster's path to the highest rests on a number of key pillars. It has high-profile backing, a multi-chain technique that few rivals can match, and a roadmap that continues to provide merchants a cause to stay round.
CZ issue
The most important identify in Aster's nook is Zhao Changpeng. CZ gives product and expertise advisory assist by YZi Labs, during which it holds a minority stake. He personally bought about $2.09 million. $ASTER The common worth is round $0.91, and Aster has publicly said that it’s a “very sturdy venture” that’s worthwhile. $BNB chainalthough they’re technically competing Binance.
His involvement moved the market. $ASTER It was launched at roughly $0.08 throughout the TGE interval in September 2025 and hit an all-time excessive of $2.42. The group broadly views the venture as “Binance’s DEX,” with CZ’s X posts and appearances on Areas persistently inflicting 20-35% rallies.
Multi-chain edge and its subsequent improvement
Past CZ, Aster's multi-chain strategy is an actual aggressive benefit. Hyperliquid runs on a single chain. Aster helps 4 varieties of assist to leverage customers throughout $BNB Chain, Ethereum, Solana, Arbitrum. That is vital for merchants who don't wish to take care of bridging or who have already got property on these networks.
The group continues to ship. Sealed Mode lately lowered entry and exit charges for privacy-focused high-leverage trades to 0.03%, and new fairness PERPs like GOOGL and WDC function with as much as 50x leverage, increasing Astor's dedication to conventional equities alongside cryptocurrencies.
Aster Chain, which can seem sooner or later, Layer 1 blockchain The mainnet objective is March 2026, which is the subsequent huge catalyst. The testnet went reside in early February with over 50,000 contributors. This focuses on privateness and effectivity, and is consistent with CZ's latest feedback that privateness is the “lacking piece” of cryptocurrencies. If the chain does effectively, 24/7 stock perks might turn out to be a core a part of the platform's identification.
Whale accumulation, Coinbase’s itemizing roadmap, and continued incentive applications like Aster Harvest are preserving the momentum going.
What’s it that holds Aster again?
Aster's numbers look spectacular, however dig just a little deeper and there are actual issues that might sluggish its rise.
Questions on quantity and high quality
The most important query mark is the standard of the amount. A few of Aster's numbers may be inflated by airdrop incentives, level farming applications like Rh and Au, or wash offers. In October 2025, DefiLlama quickly delisted Aster's PERP buying and selling quantity knowledge after discovering a near-perfect 1:1 correlation between Aster's buying and selling pairs and Binance's everlasting buying and selling quantity. The information was later relisted, however there have been gaps in historic information and unresolved validation issues. True adoption metrics equivalent to retention charges and natural progress in open curiosity stay the numbers to observe.
Hyper liquid moat
Hyper Liquid additionally has a deep moat. The corporate's open curiosity ($5.249 billion vs. Aster's $1.771 billion) suggests extra steady capital and critical buying and selling exercise. Hyperliquid persistently information billions of {dollars} in each day buying and selling quantity with out related spikes or declines, making it a tougher goal than the uncooked numbers counsel.
$ASTER It’s at present buying and selling at about $0.70, down about 71% from its all-time excessive, and the latest unlocking of 78 million tokens on February sixteenth (valued at about $58 million) has added new provide strain. Broader market circumstances might additional weigh on buying and selling volumes.
There's additionally the difficulty of positioning. Aster targets a special viewers than Hyperliquid. That is basically a CEX-like expertise with out KYC, however Hyperliquid leans extra towards pure DeFi. They could find yourself coexisting, reasonably than one changing the opposite.
So will it occur?
Aster has backing, expertise, and trajectory. If the Aster Chain mainnet delivers on its privateness promise and drives natural adoption, it isn’t unattainable to modify Hyperliquid by mid-2026. Nonetheless, “can” and “do” are two various things. Sustained natural quantity, reasonably than incentive-driven spikes, can be what separates the true No. 1 from the non permanent No. 1.
supply:
- DefiLlama Perps Dashboard — Perp DEX protocol quantity, open curiosity, and market share knowledge
- Aster documentation — Protocol particulars, buying and selling modes and technical options
- Yahoo Finance — YZi Labs, Multi-Chain Technique, and $ASTER Buy particulars
- coin market cap — Aster Platform Overview, Specification Leverage, and Roadmap Milestones
- crypto briefing — Aster Chain Mainnet March 2026 Timeline and Testnet Particulars
- influential particular person within the monetary world — CZ private stuff $ASTER Buy and worth implications
- aster dune dashboard — Cumulative person metrics and on-chain exercise knowledge
