Aster
the perp DEX token with a shrinking supply
Key facts
- #46by market value
- Rank
- DEX tokenperpetuals trading platform
- Type
- 2025September token event
- Launched
- 8bnburning toward 3bn
- Supply
Aster (ASTER) is the token of a decentralised perpetuals exchange formed from the merger of Astherus and APX Finance, with fee-funded buybacks and burns toward a 3 billion supply floor.
What it is
Aster (ASTER) is the token of a decentralised exchange built for perpetual futures, the open-ended contracts that dominate crypto trading volume and are usually traded on centralised venues. Aster’s documentation describes it as a privacy-focused perp DEX offering perpetual markets on crypto, stocks and commodities, alongside spot trading and yield products. The project was not built from scratch: it is the result of two existing BNB Chain protocols, Astherus and APX Finance, combining into one platform, with APX holders able to swap into ASTER from September 2025. The memorable claim is scale of ambition: the team is building Aster Chain, its own network for private perpetuals trading, which it says targets over 100,000 transactions per second.
How it works
Traders use Aster in several modes: an order-book perpetuals market, a simplified pool-based mode the docs call Shield Mode, high-multiple onchain perps, and ordinary spot trading, all non-custodial, meaning users keep control of their own funds. The token’s economics are unusually mechanical. According to the official tokenomics, 99 per cent of the platform’s daily fees automatically buy back ASTER, which is distributed to users who lock the token as veASTER, and each buyback triggers an equal burn from reserves. Burns run fortnightly and continue until total supply falls from 8 billion to 3 billion. Usage therefore directly reduces supply and pays stakers.
The story so far
Astherus and APX Finance merged into Aster in late 2024, and the ASTER token generation event followed in September 2025, with 8.8 per cent of supply, 704 million tokens, unlocked at launch for participants in the project’s Spectra and Gems reward programmes. The token swap for APX holders opened on 17 September 2025 at a conversion rate that stepped down over time. Aster rose quickly through the rankings during the perp DEX boom of 2025, a period when decentralised derivatives venues took meaningful volume from centralised exchanges, and it has stayed in the top 50 since.
Where it stands
As of late July 2026 ASTER ranks about 46th among cryptocurrencies by market value, at roughly $1.7bn, trading near $0.64 according to CoinGecko, with about 2.7 billion of the 8 billion tokens circulating. The things to watch are whether trading volume, and with it the fee-funded buyback, holds up against rival perp DEXes, the delivery of Aster Chain, and the pace of the fortnightly burns toward the 3 billion floor. Perpetuals trading is high-risk by nature and this page describes the platform rather than endorsing it; none of the above is investment advice.