Aster News: DefiLlama Delists Aster DEX Data Over Wash Trading Fears

DefiLlama delisted Aster DEX data over wash trading fears, causing ASTER token to drop and raising major transparency concerns.

The decentralized finance market faced fresh turmoil after DefiLlama delisted trading volume data for Aster, a rising perpetual decentralized exchange. The decision, motivated by worries about data manipulation, led to a sharp drop in the ASTER token. The delisting emphasises the continued great challenges of integrity and transparency in the decentralised exchange sector as trading activity continues to increase on a global scale.

Aster Token Plunges After DefiLlama Data Removal

DefiLlama’s co-founder, 0xngmi, acknowledged that Aster’s perpetual futures data had been removed because of some odd trading patterns. He said that Aster’s reported volumes started to “mirror Binance Perp volumes almost exactly,” suggesting a ratio of correlation of around one. Such synchronization is unusual and raised immediate suspicion of some kind of wash trading, trading in which identical buy and sell orders create fake trading activity.

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DefiLlama explained that the reason for the decision was lack of transparency in the data regarding the trading Aster performs. The platform does not grant access to lower levels of information, such as who is making and filling orders. In the absence of such information, auditors have no way of checking if trading activity is real. The lack of detailed information prompted DefiLlama to remove Aster’s numbers to preserve the credibility of the analytics.

The controversy was heightened due to Aster’s connection to Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao. Although CZ has said his advisory role is limited to product and technology, many in the industry are wary. The mirroring of Binance’s trading volumes has made people question the accuracy of Aster’s reported performance and the independence of the Aster’s trading metrics.

Following the announcement of the delisting, the price of ASTER plunged. By the time of Monday morning, it was trading at around 1.85 US dollars, down more than 10% in 24 hour timeframe. The token’s market cap was above three billion dollars, with 1.22 billion dollar daily volume. The drop of followed a period of strong gains when Aster briefly led all perpetual DEXs with regards to daily fees and trading volume.

Upcoming Token Release May Add Pressure on Aster

The delisting arrived at a rough time for Aster, which has a token unlock coming up on October 14, 2025. A lot of tokens will be released into circulation without any locking period. This could put additional selling pressure on the token and create further downward pressure on the token’s price. Investors now view the unlock as an added risk for short-term stability of the market.

DefiLlama’s decision also points to a much wider concern over reliability in decentralized market data. Many exchanges claim to be transparent but do not offer access to verifiable records. The incident illustrates how a lack of complete information can be damaging to credibility even for fast-growing platforms.

The episode serves as a warning for investors looking to trading volume as a sign of organic demand. Unless Aster offers unambiguous and provable trade data, its leadership in the perpetual exchange market will continue to be questionable.