When Hyperliquid became embroiled in controversy due to the JELLYJELLY large-scale liquidation event, traditional exchanges swiftly launched the perpetual contract for this token, puncturing the CEXs' dignity: CEXs precisely targeted DEX liquidity crisis, reaping short-term gains while weakening the opponent's ecosystem foundation. The online liquidity battle has entered a white-hot stage. In this smoke-free online liquidity war, CEXs have also revealed their anxiety towards Hyperliquid.

Today's exchange platform battlefield has shifted online. Top exchanges are seizing new territory in different ways: Bybit raised its spot trading ratio from 3.2% to 8.51% through the frenzy of small-cap coins; OKX quietly harvested on-chain traffic through Web3 wallets.

He who wins on-chain wins it all. In order to become the "HBO" of the new era, DEXs and CEXs have entered a "warlord era," where the traditional exchange battlefield boundaries are fading, and the line between on-chain and off-chain is no longer so crucial: "Whether it's a black cat or a white cat, as long as it catches mice, it's a good cat."

As Hyperliquid's listing effect and TVL gradually decline under siege from all sides, Perp DEX has become a beachhead coveted by various forces, providing a breakthrough opportunity for newcomers like Aster, which also happens to align with Binance's strategic layout to compete for on-chain liquidity.

Where is the entry point for BNB Chain's revival? The analysis by the crypto KOL during the rainy nap is very accurate: AI, MEME, and DeFi.

Pancake and Lista are relatively well-known projects invested in and already listed on Binance by YZi Labs. Ordinary people continue to bet on the development of the Binance ecosystem. In contrast, Aster is an earlier opportunity where one can lay low.

Due to CZ's and Aster's multiple interactions, searching for Aster and Astherus (original name) on Twitter, rows of keywords such as Binance's darling, CZ's darling, show the community's high expectations for its Binance listing.

Beyond Hyperliquid, Aster Aims to Become the Top Perp DEX on BNB

On March 31, 2024, Astherus (formerly known as) completed a strategic-level evolution. After merging with APX to upgrade to Aster, this protocol, which was originally focused on staking asset liquidity, officially shifted its focus to the decentralized perpetual contract market.

Initially, Aster's positioning was more like a staking asset liquidity protocol. Based on this positioning, two products, AstherusEx and AstherusEarn, were launched, starting from the perpetual contract decentralized trading platform and DEFI mining strategy tracks, supporting derivative trading of mainstream assets and allowing users to stake assets to earn rewards.

Product Reshaping: Aster's Perpetual Contract Revolution

In this strategic upgrade, the merger of Astherus with APX to become Aster was by no means a simple brand iteration but a comprehensive reconstruction from underlying architecture to product logic. The new protocol aims to achieve the "Ultimate Form of Perp DEX" and directly benchmarks hyperliquid.

To meet the needs of different users, Aster has developed two trading modes: 'Simple' and 'Pro.' The Simple mode provides the most straightforward trading experience in the form of fully on-chain perpetual contracts, supporting up to 1001x leverage on the BTCUSD trading pair. It covers a wide range of assets, including cryptocurrencies, forex, and popular meme coins, and is also compatible with the BNB Chain and Arbitrum network. Users can complete trades with just a single tap, without the need for complex charts, significantly reducing the barrier to on-chain trading.

Notably, Aster has also innovatively introduced the 'Dumb' prediction mode. Users can predict and participate in trades based on minute-level asset price fluctuations. This novel feature is already available on the BNB Chain and Arbitrum network, further enriching users' on-chain experience.

In contrast, the Pro mode caters to more professional and advanced trading needs. This mode uses an on-chain order book mechanism, providing deep liquidity, real-time data, and advanced trading tools.

Currently, the Pro mode supports USDT perpetual contract trading pairs for 14 mainstream coins, including BTC, ETH, DOGE, SOL, XRP, SHIB, BNB, TRX, LINK, SUI, PEPE, LIATA, LO, ZK, and is compatible with the BNB Chain, Ethereum, and Solana networks.

In terms of transaction fees, the Pro mode has been optimized with the Maker fee reduced to 0.01% and the Taker fee adjusted to 0.035%, significantly increasing the attractiveness to high-frequency traders.

Based on the coins listed on Aster earlier, such as Mubarak and BANANAS31 perpetual contracts, it can be seen that Aster's listing strategy for a long time to come will mainly focus on coins from the Binance Alpha. In addition, Aster will also list some popular meme coins, such as the latest Elon Musk-themed Solana meme coin RFC.

Two Point Systems, How to Participate in Aster Airdrops?

After completing a brand upgrade and product reshaping, Aster's series of actions have already revealed the prelude to a TGE (Token Generation Event). With the rumor of "soon to be listed on Binance" continuing to ferment, Aster's airdrop point system undoubtedly becomes the most worthy of attention.

Currently, Aster has two sets of point systems: Rh and AU. Simply put: Rh points are suitable for active players, the more they trade, the higher the rewards; AU points are suitable for lazy players, where staking assets earn airdrops passively.

As Aster's focus shifts from liquidity mining to Perp DEX, this means that the product logic is transitioning from "staking mining" to "trading mining." Based on the current pace and resource allocation, the weight of Rh should be much higher than AU—users who truly want to receive large airdrops should focus on earning Rh points. Therefore, let's first focus on how to participate in the Rh point system.

1. Rh Points (Trading Mining Mode):

The gameplay for Rh points is the more you trade, the more points you earn, suitable for friends who like to trade frequently. However, it is important to note that in Aster's trading point system, only perpetual contract trades using the Aster Pro mode accumulate Rh points (trading volume in Simple mode and "Dumb" mode does not count).

Rh points follow an Epoch mechanism settled weekly. Each natural week is a scoring period, with points resetting to zero for all users at the end of the period, starting a new ranking for the next week. However, the weekly reset does not mean past efforts are wasted; the platform will record users' weekly point performance as an important basis for future airdrop distributions. There are three specific ways to earn Rh points:

Professional Mode Trading: Trading perpetual contracts in Pro mode is the primary way to earn Rh points. As long as valid trading volume is generated, it will be converted into Rh points at a certain rate. The larger the trading volume, the more points you will receive.

Referral Code Binding and Teaming Up: Invite friends to form a team, where the team's point bonus will allow you to earn more points. The maximum team bonus is 20%. You can search for some "full team" invitation codes on Twitter to join.

‘Treasure Boost’ Event: If you have had recent active trading records on Hyperliquid (top 1000), Drift (top 100), or GMX (top 100), as long as you use the same wallet address for trading, the system will automatically recognize it. Those who meet the criteria will receive an additional 1.1x Rh points bonus, and will also receive $100 worth of BonusUSD contract experience gold (usable for collateralized trading).

It is worth noting that the Aster platform will refresh users' trading volume statistics and Rh point data every hour. Rh points are not automatically stacked over time; they depend entirely on your actual trading behavior and the bonus treatment you receive. In other words, if you generate new trades in an hour (and meet the corresponding conditions for a bonus), your points will reflect these new achievements at the top of the hour refresh. Conversely, if there are no trades during a period, points will not increase for no reason.

2. AU Points (Laying Earn Mode):

The gameplay of AU points is simple, which is to stake assets to earn points. You only need to mint and hold some assets in the Aster ecosystem to easily earn AU points, which can participate in future platform airdrop rewards.

Holding as series assets (such as asBTC, asBNB, asUSDF, asCAKE, and other mainstream assets): You can enjoy up to 10x point bonuses. Currently, the highest multipliers are 10x for asUSDF, 5x for ALP and asBNB, points accumulate automatically every hour. See below for the latest specific point multipliers and descriptions:

Hold USDF Stablecoin: Holding USDF Stablecoin will grant you a 10x AU Point bonus, which accumulates hourly. USDF is a yield-bearing stablecoin issued by the platform. AsterEarn has formed a deep collaboration with the Binance-backed asset management platform Ceffu to provide fund custody for CeDeFi asset products, undergo rigorous full audits, and currently offers an annualized yield of 3.1%.

Hold ALP and asBNB Tokens: Holding ALP and asBNB Tokens will grant you a 5x AU Point bonus. ALP is used to provide liquidity for the AsterEX Simple Mode, allowing you to earn points and receive a share of the platform's trading revenue.

Provide Liquidity (LP Mining): Furthermore, providing liquidity for some related ecosystem pools offers a significant bonus multiplier. LP on PancakeSwap can receive up to a 35x point bonus, while the Pendle platform offers a 25x bonus, maximizing earnings directly.

The calculation of AU Points is based on the value of the staked assets in your wallet per hour, multiplied by the corresponding points multiplier, and then added with team bonuses and referral rewards, resulting in the hourly points you earn. For example: if you hold 0.5 BNB, and the price of BNB is $670, with an corresponding asBNB points multiplier of 5x, you will earn 0.5 × 670 × 5 = 1675 points per hour. If the BNB price changes, the points will adjust accordingly, ensuring transparency.

Future Product Roadmap

1. Short-term Plans:

VIP Plan: Introducing a multi-tier VIP system, where the higher the trading volume, the lower the fees, providing the most competitive market trading fees for active users.

Referral Plan: The current referral fee rate is 20%. Aster will implement a tiered commission system where the more trading fees generated by referred friends, the higher your commission rate will be, leveraging the network effect to its fullest.

2. Long-term Plans: From Infrastructure to Innovation

Aster Layer 1 Public Chain: Developing a public chain specifically designed for on-chain derivative trading, the Aster Layer 1 Public Chain offers ultra-fast transaction confirmation, low fees, and a specially optimized trading infrastructure to create a professional decentralized financial ecosystem.

Aster Native Blockchain Explorer: Alongside Layer 1, a native browser tool has been released to allow users to intuitively and interactively view on-chain transactions, points, and fund flows in real time, providing traders with a more transparent and user-friendly experience.

Targeting Hyperliquid, What are Aster's Advantages?

In the rapid expansion of on-chain perpetual contract trading platforms in the years 2024-2025, Hyperliquid is undoubtedly one of the fastest runners. However, under high-speed growth, the $JELLYJELLY rug pull event completely exposed a systemic weakness of such platforms in extreme market conditions. With opaque liquidation mechanisms, nearly drained insurance pools, and a lack of automatic risk mitigation tools, Aster preemptively provided its own solutions to these potential issues.

More Comprehensive Risk Control System and Richer Trading Experience

The issue with Hyperliquid is that its liquidation system is almost opaque to users. During the JELLY event, many users were liquidated without warning, unable to even understand the calculation logic behind the liquidation price. Although the platform's documentation mentions that its price oracle is based on the weighted median of prices from multiple CEX spot markets, this approach has extremely limited resistance to manipulation in low-liquidity markets. And at the point where the platform almost "emptied the treasury," it ultimately chose to artificially freeze the market and roll back settlement prices, completely shattering the trust foundation of its decentralized trading platform.

Aster, on the other hand, has addressed these accumulated risk issues at an architectural level. The platform sets independent leverage limits and initial/maintenance margin thresholds for each trading pair to avoid systemic shocks caused by high leverage. For example, high-volatility assets like meme coins have leverage restrictions imposed, while blue-chip trading pairs like BTCUSD can offer leverage of up to 1001x within a safe range. Regarding price oracles, Aster integrates multiple-source oracle systems such as Pyth, Chainlink, Binance Oracle, significantly enhancing price authenticity and resistance to manipulation.

Moreso, Aster has deployed standardized Automatic Deleveraging (ADL) mechanisms that automatically deleverage overleveraged and excessively profitable reverse accounts in extreme market conditions, preventing risks from spreading throughout the entire system. Additionally, each asset pair adopts independent position and insurance pool designs, so in the event of a rug pull, it will only be handled within that specific market and will not have a system-wide impact.

This means that Aster does not wait for accidents to happen before taking remedial measures, but rather establishes a "firewall" at the system's core, isolating and reducing all foreseeable risks as much as possible.

Now, looking at the transaction experience. The current transaction product structure of Hyperliquid is relatively simple, mainly based on an order book model, primarily serving professional traders, with a user base skewed towards high-frequency quant traders and seasoned speculators. However, this also makes it less user-friendly for newbie traders, meme asset traders, or users needing cross-market trading.

Aster, on the other hand, adopts a dual-mode trading design: The Simple mode is suitable for one-click ordering, an extremely simple interface, and a lightweight experience without charts.

The Pro mode is equipped with a full order book, candlestick chart, depth chart, and other professional tools to meet the detailed trading needs of advanced users. The platform also innovatively introduced a Dumb mode, providing users with minute-level prediction trading gameplay, further expanding the trading possibilities.

Self-Sufficient Liquidity Provision

While Hyperliquid has a liquidity provision mechanism, when facing large-scale liquidation, its treasury (i.e., counterparty fund pool) is on the verge of collapse. A single asset's sudden collapse can expose the entire platform to systemic liquidation risk. This architecture inherently relies on continuous external liquidity injections, making it fragile and unsustainable.

At this point, the advantage of Aster's predecessor as a liquidity hub is highlighted: it can provide "blood" without relying on external assistance.

In over a year of deep cultivation, Aster has launched the USDF stablecoin, currently with a TVL of $130 million; and in-depth collaboration with the BNB chain to launch asBNB, with a TVL currently around $115 million.

Data Source: DefiLama

Amid multiple rule arbitrage attacks this month, Hyperliquid's TVL has now dropped to $177 million. This means that solely based on the TVL of the two products USDF and asBNB, Aster's TVL surpasses Hyperliquid's HLP treasury.

Moreover, as of the time of writing, according to the latest data displayed on the Aster website, Aster's current total TVL is $300 million.

Aster's own TVL, combined with on-chain market-making (MM strategy), not only strengthens the protocol's internal liquidity but also enhances user participation security and stickiness. This liquidity strategy allows Aster to have stronger "anti-shock capabilities" in market fluctuations.

The Revival of the BNB Chain

More importantly, Aster tightly integrates these products with the BNB ecosystem, adapts to the Binance Wallet, receives full investment from YZi Labs, and frequently interacts with CZ. Aster can be said to be in a good position with strong support.

After all, the BNB Chain itself is in a revival stage.

Many newcomers may not know that during the period from 2020 to 2023 when the DeFi narrative dominated the market, the BNB Chain, then known as BSC, was the second largest public chain after Ethereum. With its efficient and low-cost architecture, the BNB Chain attracted a large number of users and developers, becoming an undeniable force in the DeFi and NFT ecosystems.

Although the BNB Chain hasn't made many moves in the past two years, since CZ's release in November this year, frequently mentioning the BNB Chain on Twitter, along with various promotional activities, the ecosystem has clearly shown signs of recovery.

In terms of infrastructure, the BNB Chain has the opBNB layer 2 scaling solution, which further optimizes transaction speed and cost, greatly improves the chain's scalability. With the launch of the Greenfield data storage solution, the infrastructure capabilities of the BNB Chain have been further strengthened, providing developers and users with more choices.

With the resurgence of on-chain liquidity, the rising popularity of token concepts, and BNB itself has always been a stable and profitable public chain token, all of this foreshadows new opportunities brewing, making "the revival of the BNB Chain" a new trend.

Looking at more direct data, whether it's DEX trading volume or TVL, the BNB Chain is poised to surpass Solana.

The BNB Chain is regaining market dominance, and on the reviving BNB Chain, Aster is more likely to become the most promising top-tier Perpetual DEX in this round of public chain ecosystem revival.

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