Decentralized trade Aster has caught merchants’ consideration because of its eye-watering 1,001x leverage choices, help from Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, and a hovering token.
Attributable to its give attention to perpetual futures buying and selling, Aster is taken into account a rival to Hyperliquid—which has been probably the most profitable crypto tasks of the 12 months. Throughout its first week, it flipped Hyperliquid in every day income however remained behind when it comes to buying and selling quantity.
Due to its explosive begin, in keeping with CoinGecko, its Aster token surged to a $3.2 billion market cap because the fiftieth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization—not dangerous for every week’s work.
So, what precisely is Aster? What even is a perpetual future? How does Aster match up in opposition to Hyperliquid? And what’s subsequent? Right here’s a take a look at the favored BNB Chain trade.
What’s Aster?
Aster is a decentralized trade that helps a number of chains, together with Solana, Ethereum, and Arbitrum, however is most carefully tied to BNB Chain. It focuses on perpetual futures buying and selling, though it additionally gives spot buying and selling. The mission is backed by YZi Labs, the crypto funding agency of Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who co-founded Binance.
Perpetual futures enable merchants to invest on the value of cryptocurrencies with out proudly owning the underlying asset—be it Bitcoin, Ethereum, or every other accessible token. Conventional futures require an expiration date, whereas perpetual futures don’t. That mentioned, merchants nonetheless have to pick out in the event that they wish to brief (that means the value will drop) or lengthy (the value will rise) the chosen asset.
On prime of this, perpetual futures have develop into carefully tied to extremely leveraged trades—with Aster’s max leverage set at a whopping 1,001x.
Aster exploded in recognition in September 2025, with the debut of its token that soared 2,000% in its first seven days to $3.8 billion market capitalization. On the time of writing, it has settled at a greater than $3 billion market cap, which makes it the fiftieth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
Aster vs. Hyperliquid
With its success, Aster has naturally been in comparison with Hyperliquid—which has established itself because the main decentralized trade specializing in perpetual futures.
On the time of writing, in late September 2025, Aster’s weekly buying and selling quantity sits at $3.32 billion, behind Hyperliquid at $5.39 billion. That mentioned, in keeping with DefiLlama, it has surpassed the rival trade in every day income on a number of days since its launch.
So what’s the distinction? First, Aster operates natively on 4 networks, reducing friction for merchants to get began, whereas Hyperliquid has its personal blockchain powering the trade. That mentioned, Aster does have goals to finally launch its personal layer-1 community.
One other main distinction is that Aster seems to have a stronger give attention to privateness, with the launch of Hidden Orders permitting for personal trades to be positioned. In contrast, Hyperliquid’s extremely clear mannequin has been, partly, its energy because it caught headlines as a result of whales putting eye-popping bets.
Nonetheless, CZ instructed Farokh Sarmad of Rug Radio—Decrypt’s sister firm—in a video interview in Might that Hyperliquid’s clear mannequin will not be optimum for large trades.
“The present mannequin the place every part is totally clear could or will not be the perfect mannequin,” the Binance co-founder mentioned. “Yeah, you’ll be able to see an enormous whale place a $300 million brief. However the man who actually desires to do a $300 million brief doesn’t need you to see it.”
On prime of this, Aster’s most leverage is a dizzying 1,001x whereas Hyperliquid tops out at 40x. To place that into perspective, the very best that the centralized trade Binance gives is 20x, and it’s a must to cross sure necessities to take action.
The way forward for Aster
Aster has gotten off to a sizzling begin, nevertheless it has huge plans to maintain constructing.
A transfer to a devoted layer-1 community would be the most vital change to the decentralized trade, and will likely be a notable transfer away from BNB Chain—which is tied to Binance, which CZ co-founded.
Precise particulars on this transfer are nonetheless pretty underneath wraps, with Aster’s official docs merely saying “coming quickly.” Aster Chain is presently in an inside testing section, the trade’s CEO Leonard instructed Cointelegraph. Leonard mentioned it’s being designed to “protect commerce privateness.”
What customers are doubtless most excited for, although, is the potential for an Aster airdrop.
After its token technology occasion, a portion of the token provide was airdropped to people who had participated in earlier airdrop campaigns. On October 17, the airdrop declare interval will shut and any unclaimed tokens will return to the neighborhood rewards pool—which accounts for 53.5% of its whole provide.
As such, customers are anticipating one other spherical of airdrops to happen someday after the October declare interval closes. And a few merchants are already trying to farm it.
Whether or not you’re farming the airdrop, eagerly anticipating the brand new layer-1 community, or simply buying and selling with insane leverage, Aster has so much in retailer for customers. Whether or not it finally has the identical type of long-term impression as Hyperliquid stays to be seen, nonetheless.
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