About

Aster is a decentralized perpetual and spot exchange formed from the late-2024 merger of Astherus, a yield and liquidity protocol, and APX Finance, a perpetuals protocol, and backed by YZi Labs. It offers non-custodial futures trading with a one-click Simple Mode (up to 1001x leverage) and an order-book Pro Mode, hidden orders, stock perpetuals, and yield-bearing collateral across BNB Chain, Ethereum, Solana, and Arbitrum, and since March 2026 runs its own privacy-focused Layer 1, Aster Chain. It competes with Hyperliquid for onchain derivatives volume and directs the bulk of platform fees to ASTER buybacks and burns.

History

Aster took shape in November 2024 when Astherus, a multi-asset liquidity and yield protocol on BNB Chain, closed a seed round with YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs) and, days later, acquired APX Finance, a decentralized perpetuals exchange. The combined products were rebranded as Aster in early 2025, pairing APX's trading engine with Astherus's yield products (asBNB, USDF) so that collateral earns yield while it backs positions. The platform is built around trading privacy: Hidden Orders keep order size and liquidation levels off the public book, and the team's thesis is that visible positions on transparent venues get hunted. Aster is registered in the British Virgin Islands and its leadership is largely pseudonymous. The ASTER token launched on September 17, 2025 with an 8 billion supply, 53.5% of it earmarked for airdrops; APX holders swapped into ASTER, and the token was listed on Binance the same month. Public endorsement from Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who later disclosed buying ASTER, drove a sharp run-up and a jump in volume that put Aster second among perp DEXs behind Hyperliquid. Since then the project has shipped a dedicated Layer 1 and progressively tightened its tokenomics, most recently committing 99% of daily fees to buybacks for veASTER stakers with a matching burn from the team allocation, targeting a 3 billion supply. Documentation is at docs.asterdex.com and public metrics at the team's Dune dashboard.

• November 2024: Astherus raises a seed round from YZi Labs
• December 2024: Astherus completes the acquisition of APX Finance
• March 2025: Products unified under the Aster brand as a perpetuals-focused DEX
• September 2025: ASTER token generation event on September 17; APX-to-ASTER swap opens; Binance listing
• November 2025: Changpeng Zhao discloses a 2 million ASTER purchase
• December 2025: Stage 3 burn removes 77.8 million ASTER; 2026 roadmap published (Aster Chain mainnet, staking, governance)
• January 2026: Strategic Buyback Reserve launched, directing 20% to 40% of daily fees to repurchases
• February 2026: Aster Chain public testnet opens with more than 50,000 participants
• March 2026: Aster Chain mainnet launches on March 17 with default trade privacy and a native bridge to BNB Chain
• June 2026: Buyback upgraded to 99% of daily fees plus a matching team-allocation burn
• September 2026: Cumulative burns pass 200 million ASTER across all programs