The analytics platform DefiLlama will no longer take into account the volume of perpetual futures on the decentralized exchange Aster. The reason is suspicions of data manipulation, according to one of the project’s founders, known as 0xngmi.
According to him, the volumes on Aster have recently almost perfectly mirrored the figures of Binance Perp—the correlation between them is close to 1.
“It is impossible to get low-level data on Aster—who is placing orders and who is executing them. Until we get access to this information and rule out the possibility of wash trading, perpetual contract data will be excluded,” explained 0xngmi.
The Aster platform appeared in September as a competitor to Hyperliquid—another decentralized exchange for trading perpetual contracts. The project quickly attracted community attention due to its ties with Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) and amid the popularity of Hyperliquid.
Aster DEX and Binance volumes. Source: 0xngmi
Can Aster surpass Hyperliquid
Open interest on Aster increased by more than 33,500% in just a week—this happened at the end of September and sharply increased interest in the platform. Activity on Aster in terms of trading volumes approached the figures of Hyperliquid, its main competitor among DEX for futures.
On September 25, the trading volume of perpetual contracts on Aster reached a record $60 billion, according to DefiLlama. This surge is attributed to growing interest from traders and investors in the crypto community—Aster is increasingly mentioned in the information space.
See also: Memecoins are losing popularity—traders are switching to utility tokens
According to analyst Marcell, the Aster token could theoretically grow by another 480% and reach $10. Back in September, he noted:
“Aster has already surpassed HYPE in both daily volume and revenue.”
Currently, the Aster token is trading around $1.83—below the all-time high of $2.30, according to CoinMarketCap.
Analysts believe that in October, which is traditionally favorable for the crypto market, Aster could gain up to another 35% and set a new price high.
