DefiLlama to Delist Aster Volume Data Over Suspected Wash Trading

DeFiLlama has removed perpetual futures volume data for Aster , a decentralized exchange backed by figures linked to former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao , after detecting trading volumes that mirrored Binance’s nearly 1:1 across multiple trading pairs. Co-founder 0xngmi announced the delisting on October 5, 2025, citing concerns over data ￰2￱ to the announcement, Aster’s volumes for pairs like XRP/USDT matched Binance perpetual volumes with a correlation ratio of approximately 1, whereas competitor Hyperliquid showed decorrelation in similar ￰3￱ analytics platform cannot access lower-level data, such as maker and taker order information from Aster, to verify whether wash trading occurred, prompting the temporary removal until such verification becomes possible. 0xngmi noted that correlation patterns appeared even more extreme for other assets, such as ETH, with similar patterns visible across all trading ￰4￱ DeFiLlama co-founder emphasized that the decision centered on maintaining data integrity for users who make investing decisions based on the platform’s analytics.

We've been investigating aster volumes and recently their volumes have started mirroring binance perp volumes almost exactly Chart on the left is XRPUSDT on aster, you can see the volume ratio vs binance is ~1 Chart on the right is XRP perp volume on hyperliquid, where there's… ￰5￱ — 0xngmi is hiring (@0xngmi) October 5, 2025 Crypto Community Splits Between Wash Trading Accusations and Liquidity Migration Defense The delisting triggered sharp divisions within the crypto community, with critics questioning DeFiLlama’s centralization while defenders attributed the correlation to legitimate liquidity migration from ￰6￱ investigator ZachXBT criticized industry figure Anndy Lian for normalizing wash trading, after Lian argued that “ all crypto projects have washed trades ” and questioned why observers were “acting so saintly” about the ￰7￱ an awful take normalizing wash trading is bad for the industry “I am commenting on this fairly as an observer” >Zero posts about HYPE and only two posts mentioning HL which Aster was also referenced >Meanwhile almost every other post is about Aster Worst thing Aster… ￰8￱ — ZachXBT (@zachxbt) October 6, 2025 Lian, who holds positions in both leading perpetual DEX tokens, claimed that most projects are not fully decentralized and that alignment in open interest and price action is common across top projects that draw charts similar to ￰9￱ argued that if a project and its backers agree to spend money acquiring market share, the level of spending is their ￰10￱ countered that Lian’s post history showed zero mentions of HYPE and only two posts referencing Hyperliquid, where Aster was also mentioned, while almost every other post focused on ￰11￱ of Aster argued that Binance’s liquidity was moved on-chain to the platform, explaining why volumes appeared to be ￰12￱ calling this “wash trading” have no idea what’s really happening Binance liquidity literally moved on-chain to Aster, that’s why the volumes look synced Funny how this FUD drops right when the airdrop news hits, timing too perfect to be random Through all this noise,… ￰0￱ ￰13￱ — Sr Peters (@SrPetersETH) October 5, 2025 Multiple community members pointed to Dune Analytics data showing Aster’s total trading volume exceeding $2.2 trillion, with a total value locked of $1.52 billion, 3.18 million total users, and $328.28 million in all-time ￰14￱ platform added 14,563 new users in the last 24 hours and 125,158 over seven days, according to the dashboard.) October 5, 2025 Aster Launches Stage 3 Rewards Program as Binance Confirms Listing Aster concluded its Genesis Stage 2 rewards program on October 5 and immediately launched Stage 3 Dawn, offering participants either their ASTER airdrop or a full refund of Stage 2 trading ￰15￱ claim page opens on October 10 for 48 hours, with airdropped tokens available on October ￰16￱ 3 runs for five weeks, ending November 9, introducing spot trading rewards, multi-dimensional scoring, symbol-specific boost multipliers, and team boosts that accumulate throughout the stage rather than resetting ￰17￱ the same time, Binance announced it will list ASTER with a Seed Tag applied, while Aster implemented VIP fee tier updates starting October ￰18￱ platform updated its Market Maker Program with preferential fees and a monthly reward pool to strengthen ￰19￱ DEXs hit $1 trillion monthly volume for the first time as Aster and Hyperliquid lead a surge challenging centralized exchange dominance. #Perps #Dexs ￰1￱ — ￰20￱ (@cryptonews) October 2, 2025 The moves come as Aster recorded $493.61 billion in 30-day trading volume according to earlier DeFiLlama data, capturing nearly 50% of the perpetual DEX market share before the ￰21￱ the time of publication, ASTER trades at $2.08 with a fully diluted valuation of $16.5 billion, having increased by over 29 times within four days following CZ’s endorsement, before reaching above $2.

The token was launched with an initial fully diluted valuation of $560 million at its token generation ￰22￱ the other end, Hyperliquid’s HYPE token trades at $48.89 with a fully diluted valuation of $48.9 billion, maintaining approximately 70% of the perpetual DEX market share despite rising competition.