ASTER Skyrockets 4X in One Week, Binance Capitalizes on Momentum to Challenge Hyperliquid

Original Title: The Aster Counterstrike

Original Source: Token Dispatch

Original Translation: LenaXin, ChainCatcher

Background

On September 18, 2025, Zhao Changpeng posted a price chart that was neither Bitcoin nor BNB.

The chart displayed the price trend of the native token of the decentralized perpetual exchange ASTER, which had just launched the day before.

"Well done! A smooth start. Let's keep it up!" he said.

Within a few hours, the ASTER token surged 400% from its issuance price. The market clearly received the signal: this former Binance CEO was not just congratulating but declaring war on Hyperliquid.

As HYPE token holders watched their Hyperliquid assets soar to a historic high of almost $60, Zhao Changpeng's carefully crafted tweet landed like a precision strike. Though banned from operating Binance, Zhao Changpeng evidently was not banned from shaking the market, as he was now fully backing Hyperliquid's strongest competitor.

However, the war machine had already been set in motion. YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs) had been silently funding ASTER's development. The BNB chainlink network was being activated. The world's largest crypto empire was mobilizing against this decentralized newcomer who dared to seize a share of the derivatives market.

This was the opening salvo of the perpetual contract decentralized exchange war, and Binance had no intention of surrendering.

(1) What Is ASTER?

ASTER was born in December 2024 from the merger of two major DeFi protocols, Astherus and APX Finance. This integration created a unified trading infrastructure aimed at directly challenging Hyperliquid's expanding market share.

(Note: Astherus focuses on yield-generating multi-asset liquidity, while APX Finance is a decentralized perpetual trading platform)

The platform is a multi-chain decentralized exchange that supports the BNB chain, Ethereum, Solana, and Arbitrum networks, enabling seamless trading without manual cross-chain transactions through aggregated multi-chain liquidity. Since its launch in March 2025, ASTER has processed over $514 billion in transactions for 2 million users. Following the token's issuance, the platform's total locked value briefly reached a peak of $2 billion, now standing at $655 million as of September 2025.

Unlike decentralized exchanges that only focus on spot trading, ASTER is positioned as a comprehensive trading platform that provides both spot and perpetual futures markets. While its core business is perpetual derivatives, the platform also offers spot trading functionality, with its native token ASTER/USDT being the first trading pair to be listed.

（II）How does ASTER address front-running and liquidation manipulation?

ASTER's core architecture is dedicated to solving the liquidity fragmentation challenge that plagues multi-chain DeFi. The platform builds "unified liquidity" through aggregating cross-chain order book depth, instead of requiring users to perform cross-chain asset transfers.

Its "hidden order" system is particularly prominent, as this feature always conceals the order size and direction before execution. This dark pool-like design effectively addresses the key pain points of on-chain trading: front-running and liquidation manipulation.

Zhao Changpeng previously praised this feature, stating that it addresses "the liquidation manipulation issues present in other on-chain DEXs."

The platform's margin system also supports both isolated and cross-asset collateral trading, allowing users to use assets like asBNB as collateral or eco-stablecoins. This capital efficiency innovation enables traders to earn passive income on their collateralized assets while maintaining an active position.

At the core of the ASTER ecosystem is USDF. USDF is an eco-stablecoin supported by a delta-neutral position. Users can mint USDF by depositing supported assets and use this stablecoin as trading collateral to earn rewards. This creates a self-reinforcing liquidity system where users holding the stablecoin naturally become liquidity providers.

The ASTER roadmap includes the integration of zero-knowledge proofs to enhance privacy and the development of a custom Layer1 blockchain, Aster Chain, optimized for trading. By June 2025, this feature had been opened to some traders for testing, allowing the platform to eventually compete with Hyperliquid's customized L1 architecture.

（III）The Ultimate Showdown: ASTER vs. Hyperliquid

ASTER and Hyperliquid represent two different paths in decentralized perpetual contract trading. Hyperliquid has built a proprietary Layer1 blockchain from scratch, utilizing a fully on-chain order book trading system to achieve performance comparable to centralized exchanges. This vertical integration has set a benchmark in terms of trading execution efficiency and user experience for Hyperliquid, but it confines it to a single ecosystem.

ASTER, on the other hand, adopts the opposite strategy by maximizing coverage and liquidity access through multi-chain deployment. Although this increases technical complexity, it allows ASTER to leverage existing DeFi ecosystem resources to serve user groups preferring specific chains.

Hyperliquid dominates the DeFi perpetual contract market with approximately 70% market share, holding unclosed contracts worth $15 billion, and maintaining a daily trading volume consistently above $800 million.

However, ASTER's multi-chain strategy has advantages that Hyperliquid finds difficult to replicate. The platform's capital efficiency opportunities created through integration with yield protocols such as Pendle and Venus are beyond the reach of Hyperliquid's isolated L1 architecture.

ASTER users can simultaneously earn BNB staking rewards, USDT savings interest, and trading fees.

There is also a significant difference in leverage configuration. Hyperliquid sets the leverage limit at 40 times, while most trading pairs on ASTER support up to 100 times leverage, with specific assets reaching up to 1001 times. ASTER's US stock perpetual contracts provide a 24/7 traditional stock market risk exposure, expanding the service range beyond crypto-native traders.

(4) Token Flow Reveals Competitive Landscape

ASTER's tokenomics focus on the concepts of community incentive and long-term sustainability. The total supply of 8 billion tokens is allocated in specific proportions: 53.5% for airdrops and community rewards, 30% for ecosystem development, 7% allocated to the treasury, 5% distributed to the team, and 4.5% for liquidity and exchange listings.

The community allocation proportion ranks at the forefront in the DeFi field, exceeding 50% of the total supply. The unlocking mechanism releases 25% of the tokens immediately at the Genesis event, with the remaining portion subject to a three-month lockup followed by a nine-month linear release.

The token serves various functions within the ecosystem, including governance rights, fee discounts, staking rewards, and advanced feature access. Earnings sharing is achieved through fee buybacks, with some transaction fees used to purchase and potentially burn ASTER tokens, creating deflationary pressure as the trading volume grows.

Users can stake their ASTER tokens and use eco-derivatives of these tokens as trading collateral, enabling a single position to generate multiple sources of value.

(5) Token Showdown: In-Depth Analysis of ASTER and HYPE

The ASTER and HYPE tokenomic models showcase different concepts of value capture and distribution.

The HYPE token from Hyperliquid adopts a more traditional crypto-economic model, with aggressive buybacks through protocol revenue. The platform has an annualized revenue of over $1 billion and allocates most of the earnings to HYPE buybacks, creating strong deflationary pressure.

The key advantage of HYPE lies in its validated "revenue-buyback" flywheel effect. Currently, 43.4% of the total supply is staked, coupled with substantial protocol revenue, keeping the token under strict circulation limits. This robust price support mechanism is something ASTER has not yet been able to achieve.

In November 2025, Hyperliquid will undergo a massive token unlock for core contributors. These unlocks will bring significant selling pressure, potentially overwhelming the aggressive buyback plan. Hyperliquid is preparing to launch the USDH stablecoin to generate additional buyback pressure, but the timing introduces uncertainty.

ASTER's strategy, on the other hand, places community ownership above immediate value capture. While this means a weaker short-term buyback intensity, it can create a stronger network effect and decentralized governance. The 53.5% community allocation ensures that value truly flows to actual users rather than early investors or team members.

(VI) Binance's Strategy

An analysis of ASTER's liquidity provision system reveals the strategic depth behind its launch. Professional market makers provide core order book depth, and the platform's cross-chain architecture aggregates liquidity from multiple blockchains. Strategic partnerships with protocols such as Pendle, ListaDAO, Kernel, Venus, YieldNest, and PancakeSwap create additional liquidity sources and user incentives.

Pendle enables yield tokenization, ListaDAO offers BNB liquidity staking (generating asBNB), Venus provides lending services, and PancakeSwap attracts arbitrage trades from Binance Smart Chain's largest DEX. These partnerships make ASTER a central hub for users to participate in a range of DeFi strategies while trading derivatives.

The ecosystem collateral system allows users to earn returns from trading margin, addressing the opportunity cost issue. Users do not need to hold idle USDT but can mint USDF to earn delta-neutral returns while using it as collateral.

（Note: USDF is ASTER's ecosystem stablecoin）

Likewise, asBNB, when used as leverage collateral, can still earn staking rewards (approximately 5-7% annualized). This allows a single deposit to generate multiple streams of income, including staking rewards, trading profits, and token rewards, incentivizing users to keep more funds on the platform for the long term, naturally deepening the liquidity pool.

The investment timeline of YZi Lab provided a key footnote to Binance's strategic layout. The investment institution completed its investment in Astherus (ASTER's predecessor) in November 2024, just as Hyperliquid posed a substantial competitive threat to Binance's derivatives dominance.

According to a BNB Chain representative, ASTER, as a key project in YZi Lab's incubation program, received mentorship, ecosystem exposure, and technical marketing resource support, thereby establishing its position as the largest perpetual contract DEX on the BNB Chain.

Hyperliquid's trading volume continued to steadily grow between 2024 and 2025. While Binance still maintains a significant advantage in absolute trading volume, Hyperliquid's growth trajectory from almost zero to a significant market share demonstrates its successful expansion into an independent market rather than directly poaching Binance traders.

Considering its investments in projects like MYXFinance, YZi Lab's investment strategy is becoming increasingly clear. These investments demonstrate a collaborative layout aimed at building the DeFi infrastructure on the BNB Chain and creating alternative solutions for successful protocols on other chains.

（Note: MYX Finance is a BNB Chain perpetual contract, and its DEX has also experienced explosive growth）

Binance's overall strategy focuses more on ecosystem defense rather than direct competition. Rather than simply replicating Hyperliquid's custom L1 solution, Binance leverages its existing ecosystem advantages: regulatory relationships, fiat channels, institutional partnerships, and deep liquidity pools. While ASTER benefits from these network effects, it is also providing a decentralized trading experience favored by sophisticated traders.

Binance does not see decentralized protocols as a negligible or marginal threat but actively invests in and promotes DeFi alternative solutions that are still within its ecosystem influence.

（VII）What is the conclusion?

The rise of ASTER either marks a turning point in decentralized derivative trading or becomes the most expensive "I can do it too" remark to competitors by Zhao Changpeng.

At first glance, the platform has all the elements of success: cross-chain liquidity, ecosystem collateral, US stock perpetual contracts, and strong support. The concept of earning revenue from trading derivatives while participating in the ecosystem sounds wonderful, but in the cryptocurrency space, innovations that seem "too good to be true" often are.

The reality of a total value locked (TVL) dropping from a peak of $20 billion to $6.55 billion may be cause for concern: there is a fundamental difference between initial hype and sustainable adoption. When the single-day TVL plummets by 67%, we may need to question whether these numbers truly represent genuine users or merely reflect yield farmers looking for quick gains.

The tokenomics of the platform focus on long-term community building rather than short-term value capture, a strategy that can be seen as visionary or naive depending on one's perspective. Unlike Hyperliquid's proven "revenue buyback" mechanism, ASTER's value proposition requires users to believe that a business model offering a 3% margin return when operating at 100x leverage is sustainable.

The real test will be whether the platform can convince traders to abandon the proven infrastructure of Hyperliquid and venture into a multi-chain experiment supported by an ecosystem that weathered the 2022 FTX collapse.

When the world's largest exchange feels compelled to support its DeFi competitors, it suggests that the centralized model is not as invulnerable as once thought. Whether this move will make ASTER a winner or merely a costly risk hedge remains to be seen.

Original Article Link

Welcome to join the official BlockBeats community:

Telegram Subscription Group: https://t.me/theblockbeats

Telegram Discussion Group: https://t.me/BlockBeats_App

Official Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/BlockBeatsAsia