In the DeFi track of 2025, no project can create a 'light-speed rise' myth like Aster—starting from the merger of two major platforms, to becoming the second-largest income perpetual contract DEX globally, and then finalizing the grand blueprint for its self-developed L1 public chain, this project backed by Binance has achieved, with nearly perfect execution, what others take years to accomplish in less than a year, redefining the possibilities of on-chain trading.
As the next-generation decentralized perpetual contract platform formed by the merger of Astherus and APX Finance, Aster's core competitiveness begins with precise insights into industry pain points. It innovatively adopts a dual-mode trading architecture, integrating the convenience of AMM with the professionalism of CLOB: in simple mode, it supports up to 1001 times leverage in the 'Degen mode', without the need for order matching, combined with multiple oracle price aggregations and a 1% price difference circuit breaker, meeting the high leverage trading needs of retail investors while ensuring transaction safety through the anti-MEV mechanism; the professional mode offers a maker fee rate as low as 0.01% and a taker fee rate of 0.035%, providing a deep limit order book, grid trading robots, and advanced APIs, perfectly adapting to the complex needs of institutional traders and quantitative teams. Even more commendable is that Aster has become the first Perp DEX to integrate hidden order functionality, allowing large trades to remain confidential before execution, fundamentally solving the market impact problems of traditional on-chain trading.
The explosive product capability directly translates to a leap in market performance. Just one week after the TGE in September 2025, Aster's daily revenue soared to $14.33 million, successfully surpassing Hyperliquid to become the second-largest revenue protocol globally; the token launch path can be described as luxurious, quickly connecting global compliance traffic from mainstream exchanges like Bybit and KuCoin to top platforms like Binance, Coinbase, and Robinhood, achieving a leap from a "new project" to a "top asset." Behind this is its reasonable token economics design: 53.5% of tokens are allocated to the community, and 50% of repurchase funds are used for destruction. At the same time, the "trade to earn" model allows users to use interest-bearing assets as collateral, earning additional passive income while trading, forming a positive value cycle of "trade - earn - destroy."
If 2025 is Aster's "breakthrough year," then 2026 will be its "leap year" towards evolving into ecological infrastructure. According to the latest official roadmap, the project will focus on three core engines: On the infrastructure level, "Shield Mode" for private high-leverage trading and TWAP strategy orders will be launched in early December, the Aster Chain testnet will open by the end of the year, and in the first quarter of 2026, the self-developed L1 public chain will officially launch, achieving 0 Gas fees and CEX-level on-chain execution efficiency; on the token utility level, the $ASTER staking function and on-chain governance mechanism will be gradually opened up, expanding into diverse assets such as RWA and commodity indices, allowing the token to upgrade from trading fuel to the core value carrier of the ecosystem; on the ecological community level, no-code pool building tools and AI trading assistants will be introduced, empowering developers through joint order books and liquidity support programs to build an open collaborative ecological network.
Of course, behind the rapid development, Aster also faces common industry challenges: 96% of token supply concentrated in six wallets poses centralization risks, issues of team information transparency, and fierce competition with Hyperliquid occupying 75% of market share are tests that the project must continue to face. However, it is undeniable that Aster has demonstrated the core logic of DeFi products being "experience-driven" through its development path of "merging - iterating - breaking barriers"—it retains the essence of decentralization while using technological innovation to compensate for the shortcomings of on-chain transactions in performance and convenience, encouraging CEX users to migrate on-chain and allowing professional traders to find compliant and efficient trading scenarios.
From supporting USDT collateral, U.S. stocks 24/7 perpetual contracts, and various "industry firsts," to connecting global top exchange traffic; from technological innovations in dual-mode trading architecture to the ecological layout of the self-developed L1 public chain, every step Aster takes is on the cutting edge of industry development. For traders, it offers diverse trading choices with low fees, high leverage, and strong privacy; for investors, the $ASTER repurchase and destruction mechanism and ecological expansion potential form long-term value support; for developers, the soon-to-launch Aster Chain and toolkits will open up new spaces for on-chain financial innovation.
As the Web3 industry enters the deep waters of "value realization," the perpetual DEX track, as a core application scenario of DeFi, is still breaking through from a market share of 2% in 2022 to a higher target. With its product innovation, ecological execution, and top resource backing, Aster is growing from a "dark horse" to a "leader" that defines the rules of the track. In the future, when Aster Chain is fully implemented, and $ASTER completes the governance and staking function loop, this young project may fundamentally rewrite the competitive landscape of decentralized finance, making on-chain transactions truly a mainstream choice.
Risk Warning: The cryptocurrency market is highly volatile, and there is uncertainty in project development. Investment decisions should be based on independent research and risk assessment, taking into account one's capacity and investing cautiously.
Follow Aster's official social platforms to secure participation eligibility for the Aster Chain testnet and ecological airdrop opportunities, and witness the next era of DeFi infrastructure! 🚀
