ASTER

Aster

DeFi

A YZi Labs-backed perp DEX that now routes 99% of fees into buybacks, while two thirds of supply is still locked.

Speculative, buyback-led v1.1 · as of 2026-10-21 · framework v1.13 Coinsight · all analyses
Bottom line

Aster is the number two perp DEX by daily volume behind Hyperliquid, with its own privacy-focused chain live since March 2026. Since June, 99% of fees buy ASTER for stakers and an equal amount is burned from the team allocation, which has slowed net supply growth to roughly the size of the buybacks. The token is −31% over a year and −70% from its week-one $2.41 peak, and only ~35% of supply circulates. The core question is whether real fee income, about $6M a month at September rates, can carry an FDV of $5.6B.

Scorecard (1–5)
Project
Token performance
Tokenomics
Price
$0.7194
+1.1% 24h · −3% 30d · CoinGecko 21 Oct
Market cap
$1.95B
rank #53 · FDV $5.60B
24h volume
$73.5M
3.8% of market cap
From ATH
−70%
ATH $2.41, Sep 2025
2026 YTD
+4%
$0.6919 → $0.7194
Open interest
~$1.31B
Castle Labs ranking, 14 Oct 2026

The last 12 months

$0.5$1$1.5$2Oct 25NovDecJan 26FebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec2025-11-19: $1.3777$1.38 peak2026-02-06: $0.4686$0.47 low2026-06-17: $0.6611$0.662026-10-21: $0.7194$0.721CZ discloses ASTER buy2ASTER usable as collateral32026 roadmap published4Season 3 burn, supply jump5Year low at $0.476Aster Chain mainnet799% fees to buybacks8#2 perp DEX by volume9Stage 6 airdrop claim opens10Governance and stock perps
MarketProductGovernanceTokenomicsTechAdoptionUpcoming

Daily closes from CoinGecko, 22 Oct 2025 to 21 Oct 2026.

Key events
  1. 1
    02 Nov 25 CZ discloses ASTER buy. CZ posts a ~$2M personal purchase; price jumps from $0.97 to a $1.23 close the next day.
  2. 2
    05 Nov 25 ASTER usable as collateral. The token becomes margin for perps at an 80% margin ratio.
  3. 3
    04 Dec 25 2026 roadmap published. Plans an own L1 in Q1, then staking, governance and stock perps in Q2 2026.
  4. 4
    16 Dec 25 Season 3 burn, supply jump. ~77.9M bought-back ASTER burned, but circulating supply rises ~0.35B in December and price falls to $0.67.
  5. 5
    06 Feb 26 Year low at $0.47. Lowest daily close of the year, −66% from the November peak; recovers to ~$0.70 within two weeks.
  6. 6
    17 Mar 26 Aster Chain mainnet. Privacy-focused L1 with ZK-encrypted orders and 50 ms blocks goes live; staking follows.
  7. 7
    17 Jun 26 99% fees to buybacks. Fees buy ASTER for veASTER stakers, matched by burns from the team allocation, targeting 3B supply.
  8. 8
    14 Oct 26 #2 perp DEX by volume. Castle Labs ranks Aster behind Hyperliquid with ~$1.55B daily volume and ~$1.31B open interest.
  9. 9
    28 Oct 26 Stage 6 airdrop claim opens. Claim window runs to 28 Nov 2026; adds new float that buybacks must absorb.
  10. 10
    Soon Governance and stock perps. On-chain governance and wider RWA perps, slated for Q2 2026, still listed as upcoming.

How a perp trade on Aster feeds ASTER buybacks

Trader
Deposits USDT or ASTER

From BNB Chain or another chain; ASTER counts as margin at 80%.

Aster DEX
Opens a leveraged perp

Order can be hidden with Shield Mode or private Aster Chain accounts.

Matching engine
Fills the order

Order book and liquidity pool match it; trader pays a trading fee.

Treasury
Buys ASTER with 99% of fees

Time-weighted market buys spread through each day.

veASTER stakers
Receive the bought ASTER

Longer locks (up to 208 weeks) get a bigger share.

Reserves
Equal amount burned

Every two weeks, team allocation first, until total supply reaches 3B.

Fees are paid in stablecoins, so ASTER is not needed to trade; it enters through the buyback. Bought tokens go to stakers rather than being burned, so circulating supply is not reduced by them; the burn comes out of locked reserves, which shrinks future unlocks rather than today's float.

Usage and adoption

ASTER per month, millions
Bought back with fees (Sep 2026)
~9.0M
Burned from team reserve (Sep 2026)
~9.0M
Circulating added, Jul–Oct 2026
~9.8M
Circulating added, 12-month average
~58M

Buyback: 4.17M ASTER bought from 99% of fees in the two weeks 7–21 Sep 2026 (Bitrue), scaled to a month, about $6.3M at $0.70; the matching burn comes from locked team tokens, so it shrinks total supply, not today's float. Circulating supply is derived from CoinGecko market cap divided by price: ~2.02B (22 Oct 2025) to ~2.68B (1 Jul 2026) to ~2.72B (21 Oct 2026). Before the June upgrade new float far outran buybacks; since July the two are roughly level.

  • medium signal
    Fee buybacks
    ~$6M / month

    4.17M ASTER per two weeks in Sep 2026 at ~$0.70. Real paid usage, but ~1/10 of Hyperliquid's fees in the mid-2026 DefiLlama snapshot.

  • medium signal
    Supply burned
    ~210M ASTER

    8B max vs ~7.79B total supply (CoinGecko); includes the Dec 2025 Season 3 burn (~77.9M) and 26.5M under the new model by 21 Sep.

  • strong signal
    Open interest
    ~$1.31B

    Castle Labs, 14 Oct 2026. Harder to inflate than volume, and the better measure of real trader capital.

  • weak signal
    Daily volume
    ~$1.55B

    Castle Labs, 14 Oct 2026, 8.5% share, #2. Volume has been flagged as incentive-driven; DefiLlama excluded it in Oct 2025.

Aster has real trading and a direct fee-to-token link since June 2026, but fee income is modest next to its $5.6B FDV and next to Hyperliquid. The supply picture improved after the upgrade; the next airdrop stage is the test.

Project

What it is
A decentralized exchange for perpetual futures and spot, first on BNB Chain and other chains, now also on its own Layer 1 (Aster Chain). Features include high leverage, Shield Mode for hidden positions, stock and gold perps, and ASTER as margin collateral.
Team
Formed from the merger of APX Finance (ex-ApolloX) and Astherus, backed by YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs). Led by CEO Leonard, an ex-exchange product manager. CZ holds ASTER and promotes it but has no stated role.
Technology
Aster Chain mainnet (17 Mar 2026): ZK-encrypted orders, optional stealth-address account privacy, a Viewer Pass for selective disclosure, 50 ms blocks and no gas fees, per the launch release.
Traction
#2 perp DEX in the Castle Labs ranking of 14 Oct 2026: ~$1.55B 24h volume (8.5% share) and ~$1.31B open interest. A mid-2026 DefiLlama snapshot showed ~$4.2M 30-day fees vs ~$51M for Hyperliquid.
Competitors
Hyperliquid (the clear leader), Lighter, edgeX, Paradex and centralized exchanges such as Binance.
Key risks
Volume quality: DefiLlama dropped Aster volume data in Oct 2025 over suspected wash trading, and volume-to-OI ratios stay high. Heavy reliance on the Binance/CZ ecosystem; ~65% of supply still to enter circulation.
Roadmap
Stage 6 airdrop claim window 28 Oct to 28 Nov 2026. On-chain governance and expanded RWA/stock perps were slated for Q2 2026 and are still listed as upcoming; no firm dates.

Token performance

1-year return (22 Oct 2025 → 21 Oct 2026, CoinGecko)
ASTER
-31%
BTC
-22%
ETH
-35%

ASTER trailed BTC and roughly matched ETH over 12 months. There is no 3-year return: the token started trading in mid-September 2025, so it cannot be compared with the standard benchmarks of BTC ~+179% (from ~$29.7k) and ETH ~+53% (from ~$1.6k) over 3 years (benchmarks researched by hand).

Range 2026
$0.47 low (6 Feb) to $0.79 high (7 Jan), daily closes; now $0.72, +4% YTD
12-month drawdown
−66%, from $1.38 (19 Nov 2025) to $0.47 (6 Feb 2026)
Liquidity
$73M traded in 24h, 3.8% of market cap; rank #53
Relative strength
−31% in a year vs BTC −22% and ETH −35%; range-bound $0.60–0.79 since March
ATH check ATH check passed, narrowly. The $2.41 high (24 Sep 2025) came one week after launch, but price closed at $1.38 on 19 Nov 2025, within 50% of it, so the ATH stays the reference. In practice it behaves like a launch spike: price is −70% from it.

Tokenomics

Supply
8B max. ~7.79B total after burns, ~2.72B circulating (35%). FDV $5.6B vs market cap $1.95B.
Emissions
No inflation; new float comes from airdrop seasons and ecosystem/team unlocks. Circulating supply rose ~0.70B (+35%) in 12 months, mostly in Dec 2025 and May–Jun 2026.
Unlocks
Large steps in Dec 2025 and Jun 2026 (~95M claimable from 9 Jun). Team cliff ended Sep 2026 per Tokenomist. Stage 6 airdrop claim opens 28 Oct 2026.
Utility
Staking as veASTER (26 to 208-week locks) for buyback rewards, margin collateral at 80%, fee discounts; governance not live yet.
Concentration
Most unissued supply sits in airdrop, ecosystem and team wallets controlled by the project; the original split earmarked over half for airdrops and community.
Sinks
Since 17 Jun 2026: 99% of daily fees buy ASTER for veASTER stakers, and an equal amount is burned from reserves (team allocation first) every two weeks, aiming for 3B total supply. Season 3 burned ~77.9M in Dec 2025.

Bull case

Fee buybacks plus matching burns keep net new float near zero while Aster Chain and stock perps lift fees; a break above the $0.79 2026 high opens a move toward the $1.38 November 2025 peak. Supply shrinking toward 3B makes the FDV gap close from both sides.

Bear case

Volume proves incentive-driven, fees stay near $4–6M a month, and the Stage 6 airdrop plus remaining unlocks add sellers; price loses the $0.60 summer range floor and retests the $0.47 February low. Hyperliquid keeps taking share.

Watch before the next re-run

  • Biweekly buyback and burn reports (ASTER bought, total supply)
  • Circulating supply after the Stage 6 claim window (28 Oct to 28 Nov)
  • Open interest and fees vs Hyperliquid, not headline volume
  • $0.60 range floor and the $0.79 2026 high

Where to trade

Krakenlisted

ASTER against EUR · USD

24h $378.7k · ±2% depth $198.1k

OKXlisted

ASTER against EUR · USDT · USDC · TRY

24h $1.08M · ±2% depth $153.6k

Largest exchanges

Exchange24h vol±2% depth
KuCoinASTER/USDT$10.6M$100.2k
BinanceASTER/USDT$5.23M$830.0k
GateASTER/USDT$4.48M$315.0k
BybitASTER/USDT$4.43M$148.6k
OKXASTER/USDT$991.2k$153.6k

Deepest DEX pools

Pool24h vol±2% depth
AsterASTER/USDT · BNB Chain$1.15M$122.0k
PancakeSwap V3CLASTER/WBNB · BSC$157.4k$41.0k
Pancakeswap Infinity CLMMCLASTER/BNB · BSC$971.6k$36.7k

Pool size (TVL), fee tier and fee APR are not in yet: they need DefiLlama, which this setup cannot reach so far. CL = concentrated liquidity (higher fees, more impermanent-loss risk).

On-chain share of all ASTER volume: 4.0%.

As of 21 Oct 2026 · CoinGecko tickers (24h volume, ±2% depth). ±2% depth is the money it takes to move the price 2% either way: the real size of a market. Exchanges ranked by volume among well-known venues; pools by depth. Not investment advice.

Where to follow

Official
People on X
  • @Aster_DEX project; posts buyback and burn reports
  • @cz_binance Changpeng Zhao, YZi Labs; ASTER holder, moves price
Code and governance
Data