Rebranded Aster perps DEX squares up against Hyperliquid following CZ endorsement

Aster, a decentralized perpetuals exchange, has been gaining mass attention and traction in recent days following its token launch on Sept. 17. Aster was formerly known as APX Finance, before a rebrand following a merger with Astherus in March.

Aster is backed by YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs) and its launch rollout emphasized multi-chain support with an early push on BNB Chain. Beyond the typical high leverage and multi-chain features commonly seen in other perp DEXs, Aster's main differentiator is its "hidden orders" feature that lets users place fully "invisible" limit orders on the orderbook, unlike the transparent, fully visible nature of most onchain perp DEXs.

The ASTER token immediately caught headlines following its launch, as price discovery and trading volumes were volatile to the upside, and social attention snowballed after a high-profile public endorsement on X from Changpeng Zhao, co-founder of Binance.

ASTER is currently valued at over $15 billion following its initial fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $560 million at TGE. The price of ASTER increased by over 10x from the time of CZ’s public endorsement to its $2 peak in the span of just four days. The allure of a newly launched token, in addition to a "Binance-adjacent perps dex" narrative via backers and chain choice, turned what was a normal TGE into a momentum event.

In fact, Aster has overtaken Hyperliquid in terms of 24-hour perpetual trading volume.

The Aster perp dex itself (formerly APX Finance) has averaged over $9 billion worth of monthly trading volume over the past three months. Though September’s data is incomplete, as the month has not ended at the time of writing. However, with the recent mass attention that likely triggered significant flows and trading volume into the platform, September’s volume figures will most likely be significantly higher than previous months.

With Aster hitting a home run in terms of initial launch distribution and attention, the most important factors to watch next would be whether trading volumes and liquidity persist after this initial hype window. With the significant backing and resources at its disposal, it is up to Aster to prove whether it can be a real sustainable competitor in the perps DEX sector, notably against Hyperliquid.

This is an excerpt from The Block's Data & Insights newsletter. Dig into the numbers making up the industry's most thought-provoking trends.