Key Takeaways
- Until recently, Hyperliquid dominated the market for decentralized perpetual futures trading.
- New-kid-on-the-block Aster has overtaken Hyperliquid’s seven-day volume.
- Aster has generated more fees in the past 24 hours than any other protocol.
Since Aster exploded onto the scene earlier this month, once-dominant Hyperliquid faces stiff competition from the new decentralized perpetual futures exchange in town.
Not only has Aster confidently surpassed the rival DEX’s seven-day trading volume, but it has also overtaken Circle in terms of fees generated and is on its way to toppling Tether.
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Aster vs. Hyperliquid: Battle of the Perp DEXs
Initially launched in late 2024, Aster brought together two existing perp DEXs, ApolloX and Astherus, under a single banner.
Despite being around for a year, Aster only realized its full functionality with the launch of its native token, ASTER, on Sept. 17.
Boosted by an endorsement from Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the token’s price has climbed more than 2,200% since launch, even accounting for a mild pullback in recent days.
At first, ASTER’s meteoric rise was mostly fueled by speculation. But with the platform’s trading volume surging in the last seven days, the high valuation may be justified.
The obvious comparison is Hyperliquid, whose HYPE token has a $16 billion market capitalization. (ASTER’s market cap remains below $4 billion.)
Both platforms compete in the rapidly expanding market for decentralized perpetual trading, which has witnessed 10x growth in September alone.
Until recently, Hyperliquid had the largest share of the market by far, having sat unchallenged since usurping dYdX for the perp DEX throne.
As the platform approached monopoly status, market watchers like Arthur Hayes started to predict big things for HYPE, which he forecast to grow 16x by 2028.
However, viewed against Aster’s recent trading volume, previous assumptions about Hyperliquid’s continued dominance look increasingly shaky.
Fee Income Rises Amid High Trading Volume
Over the past seven days, Aster’s trading volume surged to $228 billion—nearly triple Hyperliquid’s $80.5 billion, according to DeFiLlama.
With so much trading activity, Aster generated $93.5 million in fees, more than Circle or any other crypto platform except Tether. In the past 24 hours, it has even toppled Tether to become the top earner, bringing in more than $29 million in fees.
Like Hyperliquid, Aster distributes protocol fees to liquidity providers and via staking rewards. A portion of fees are also used to fund governance rewards and ASTER buybacks.
A Win for CZ and YZi Labs
Aster’s rapid rise demonstrates CZ’s continued influence in the world of crypto.
Through Yzi Labs (formerly Binance Labs), which functions as his personal venture firm, CZ helped incubate both ApolloX and Astherius. And when he endorsed the newly combined decentralized perp exchange, it gave Aster instant legitimacy.
The platform’s ascent recalls the rise of PancakeSwap in 2020–2021. Like Aster, PancakeSwap took an idea that had already proved popular, and lifted it into the BNB ecosystem, adding a few new features and embellishments to help it stand out.
Five years after its launch, PancakeSwap’s daily trading volume often surpasses that of Uniswap, the platform it was originally inspired by.
In fairness, Aster’s design is much more original than the original PancakeSwap, which was little more than a Uniswap clone. Nevertheless, its success demonstrates CZ and YZi Labs’ aptitude for disrupting markets with a new take on an existing idea.
Only time will tell if Aster is the next Binance of PancakeSwap, but early trading volume suggests it is more than capable of challenging Hyperliquid for the top spot.
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