Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. BitPinas has no commercial relationship with any mentioned entity unless otherwise stated.
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In a BitPinas Webcast episode, EveryX Country Manager Icesteam Jimenez shared that one of his observations in the current market is that decentralized exchanges (DEXs) offering perpetual trading are among the hyped use cases of blockchain technology.
One of the most known examples of this is Hyperliquid DEX and its native token HYPE, which was airdropped to its 90,000 users.
And in the past months, another DEX has owned the spotlight of the crypto industry. It has earned support from known personalities. It has attracted a surge in trading volume. Not only that, but it had what it called “the biggest airdrop of 2025.”
But it is also having controversies.
Introducing Aster
Aster (https://www.asterdex.com/en) is a DEX that offers spot and perpetual trading of crypto and stock derivatives with up to 1,001x leverage across multiple blockchains. This is the highest known in the industry.
Before 2024 ended, yield protocol Astherus had a merger with perpetuals platform APX Finance, giving birth to Aster, which started gaining traction in September 2025.
“This new identity is more than just a name change. We’re revolutionizing the way people trade perpetual contracts and utilize assets in the decentralized world.”
Aster
According to the Aster team, many people know Astherus for its powerful yield-generating products and APX for its robust perpetual trading infrastructure; thus, combining these two is an idea that could “elevate the DeFi experience.”
Aster also made a name after receiving and endorsement from Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao. It is because YZi Labs, the rebranded venture arm of Binance Labs, made a strategic investment in Astherus in November 2024, according to a report by CoinGecko Learn Editor Vera Lim.
“Aster is now laser-focused on building the best decentralized perpetual exchange in the space. We’re committed to delivering a seamless, powerful, and truly decentralized on-chain derivatives trading experience.”
Aster
As of November 10, 2025, Aster is compatible with Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, and Arbitrum. This means that users can enjoy cross-chain trading from deep liquidity pools without the need to bridge assets.
Aside from this compatibility, Aster has its own L1 blockchain called Aster Chain, upon which the DEX is built.
“Multi-chain perpetual trading is Aster’s core product. Since 2024, perpetual decentralized exchanges have captured hundreds of billions in cumulative volume on a monthly basis.
With deep expertise, Aster now delivers a high-leverage, private, and dual-mode trading experience. We are uniquely positioned to capture a significant portion of this hundred-billion-dollar market opportunity.”
Aster
As a perpetual DEX, Aster lets users buy tokens not to hold but to trade contracts that track the price of cryptocurrencies.
Currently, it offers dual trading modes:
- Simple Mode for one-click trades with MEV protection.
- Pro Mode with grid automation, hidden orders, and multi-asset margin.
Aster also offers to its users its “Trade & Earn” model, which allows users to earn passive yield on collateral while actively trading. This is where the merge of yield farming and perpetuals trading is emphasized.
The DEX’s features seem to attract the community fully. In fact, in an October 6, 2025, X post, crypto data aggregator CoinMarketCap revealed that Aster had a 24-hour trading volume of $41.78 billion with $13.44 billion in transaction fees. These numbers are four times greater than its second competitor and other perpetual DEXs.
💰Top 10 Perp DEXes Volume, Fee, OI Comparison pic.twitter.com/GNVaByKkRW
— CoinMarketCap (@CoinMarketCap) October 6, 2025
The ASTER Token and the “Biggest Airdrop of 2025”
On September 17, 2025, Aster had its token generation event for ASTER, which serves as both a governance and utility token for the DEX. It is because ASTER is used for transactions, staking, voting, and earning rewards.
The Numbers: All about ASTER, as of November 10, 2025.
- 24-Hour Range: $1.05 to $1.17
- Market Cap: $2,254,555,542
- Total Value Locked: $1,498,908,999
- Circulating Supply: 2,017,700,000
- Total Maximum Supply: 8,000,000,000
- All-Time High: $2.41 (September 24, 2025)
- All-Time Low: $0.09971 (September 17, 2025)
The hype and trust on Aster by the community made ASTER fly to the moon. Among the reports was that MrBeast, or Jimmy Donaldson in real life, the world’s most subscribed YouTuber with over 438 million subscribers, reportedly purchased $114,000 worth of the token.
Meanwhile, one interesting thing about the tokenomics of ASTER is that more than 80% of its total supply is allocated to its community: 53.5% for airdrops and rewards and 30% for ecosystem and community incentives.
This flamed up the claim that ASTER had the “biggest airdrop in 2025.” The tokens distributed were also immediately liquid, allowing recipients to trade or stake them without restrictions.
According to BlockNews writer Gary Ponce, the airdrop attracted 330,000 wallets in a single day and had onboarded over two million users as October arrived.
Claiming of ASTER airdrop rewards will be until November 14, 2025, at https://www.asterdex.com/en/airdrop.
However
Several members from the community questioned Aster’s legitimacy regarding market manipulation.
Crypto data giant DefiLlama pulled Aster’s perpetuals data from its tracking page after spotting XRP trading volumes that mirrored those on Binance almost tick-for-tick, according to CoinDesk reporter Shaurya Malwa.
“If a new exchange can mirror Binance volumes too closely, it raises a question of how much of the demand is real and whether leaderboards tell the whole story.”
Shaurya Malwa, Reporter, CoinDesk
Patterns like this could possibly be wash trading or data manipulation, the report noted, since organic decentralized order flow typically diverges.
Meanwhile, CoinCodex writer Vuk Martin revealed that Aster is experiencing “the whale problem,” citing Arkham’s data that revealed that only six wallets control about 96% of the ASTER supply, one of which holds nearly half.
He then questioned if Aster is really a “community-owned project” because even if one of those six wallets decides to sell, the ASTER market could crash.
Martin also raised Aster’s staking and trade-to-earn features, as they also attract short-term farmers, arguing that if rewards dry up, volumes can fall quick.
This article is published on BitPinas: Aster Guide: A Binance-Liked Project With Link to CZ
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