Aster, a Hyperliquid-style decentralized perpetual exchange built on BNB Chain, saw its native token surge as much as 675% within hours of its debut on the platform.
Summary
- Aster has listed its native token ASTER on its spot platform on Sep. 17.
- Since launch, the DEX has recorded more than $500 billion in trading volume, becoming the second-largest perpetual DEX.
- Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has supported the project.
For the uninitiated, the DEX was officially launched earlier on March 31 this year, following the merger and rebrand of Astherus, a derivatives trading protocol, and APX Finance, a DeFi perpetuals platform.
The project was later launched as Aster Chain in June, a crypto derivatives platform backed by CZ-affiliated YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs), and it maintains ties with BNB Chain’s leading DEX, PancakeSwap, with the aim of providing direct competition to Hyperliquid, currently the top decentralized perpetuals exchange with a market cap of nearly $16 billion.
Yesterday, Aster held the Token Generation Event for its ASTER token, which will power its ecosystem, and was subsequently listed on Aster Spot, the spot trading arm of the platform.
With the launch, APX holders can now convert their tokens directly into ASTER.
The new token has an established total supply of 8 billion as per its tokenomics. Out of this, 704 million tokens, or about 8.8% of the total supply, were reportedly airdropped to community members, fully unlocked at launch. The drop is part of the 53.5% of the token supply, or 4.28 billion ASTER, allocated for community airdrops and similar community-driven rewards. The rest is allocated across ecosystem development, treasury, team and advisors, and liquidity and listings.
Aster (ASTER) had an initial launch price of $0.16 and rallied nearly 675% to an all-time high of $1.27 within nine hours. It faced some selling pressure at its peak from airdrop recipients and has since settled at $0.70 at press time.
The strong performance comes against the backdrop of Aster’s rapid growth as a trading platform. Since relaunching, the exchange has processed more than $500 billion in cumulative trading volume, making it the second-largest perpetual DEX globally. It also counts over 1.2 million unique wallets and more than $400 million in total value locked across multiple chains, data from Dune reveals.
A few hours following the token launch, former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao shared a chart of the token on X, drawing fresh attention to the project and fueling speculative interest.
“Well done! Good start. Keep building!” noted CZ in the Sep. 17 X post.
Following CZ’s endorsement, a growing number of investors appear to be betting that Aster could replicate the success of other projects previously backed by him. As earlier reported by crypto.news, MYX Finance, another DEX project supported by CZ, delivered a 1,500% rally within just two days of its launch.
In a separate Sept. 17 X post, pseudonymous analyst Crypto Thannos urged his more than 77,000 followers to accumulate ASTER and hold until October, when token withdrawals go live and potential listings on Binance and other tier-1 exchanges could serve as major catalysts.
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