After Changpeng Zhao congratulated it on X, community members speculated that the Binance co-founder may be behind the Aster project.
BNB Chain-based decentralized perpetuals exchange Aster briefly crossed $2 billion in total value locked (TVL) on Thursday after launching its native token, before falling back sharply, according to DefiLlama data.
The surge that followed the project’s Aster (APX) token launch proved to be short-lived, as it ended the day at $545 million TVL. At the time of writing on Friday, the exchange’s TVL had rebounded to $655 million, still nearly double its usual range of $300 million–$400 million before the token debut.
The launch also sparked heightened trading activity, with Aster logging $434 million in 24-hour volume, placing it among the most active decentralized finance (DeFi) derivatives platforms. While the project gained traction, it still has a ways to go to catch up with Hyperliquid, its biggest rival in the space.
