Aster DEX and Hyperliquid: Why are the two often compared?

Aster and Hyperliquid: An in-depth comparison of the two major perpetual contract decentralized exchanges

Aster and Hyperliquid are often compared together because they are currently the two largest perpetual contract decentralized exchanges (Perpetual DEX). In a few weeks in 2025, Aster's trading volume even surpassed Hyperliquid. However, the operating philosophy of the two is diametrically opposed: Hyperliquid runs a completely transparent on-chain order book, while Aster provides privacy tools, higher leverage, and a wider range of product types. Although Aster was briefly ahead, Hyperliquid is now significantly larger. According to DefiLlama, Hyperliquid's perpetual contract trading volume in the past 30 days reached US$204.83 billion, compared with US$59.95 billion for Aster.

What are Aster and Hyperliquid?

Both are decentralized exchanges for perpetual contracts. The so-called perpetual contract (Perp) is a contract that tracks asset prices and has no expiration date. It is usually used with leveraged transactions. Decentralized exchanges (DEX) allow users to trade directly from their wallets without having to hand over funds to a centralized company for management.

Hyperliquid: Industry vested

Hyperliquid will be launched in February 2023. Its founder, Jeff Yan, graduated from Harvard University, majored in mathematics and computer science, worked at Hudson River Trading, and later founded his own crypto market maker company. The project is funded by its own funds and has not accepted venture capital.

It runs based on its own Layer 1 blockchain and uses HyperBFT consensus mechanism. Among them, HyperCore is responsible for running order books, and HyperEVM is responsible for running smart contracts. HYPE tokens will be launched on November 29, 2024, with approximately 31% of the supply airdropped to approximately 94,000 early users.

Aster: Challenger

Aster stems from the merger of Astherus and APX Finance at the end of 2024. It is supported by YZi Labs and Binance founder Zhao Changpeng (CZ) serves as an adviser. Its CEO is named Leonard.

Aster was originally deployed as an application on BNB Chain, Ethereum, Solana, and Arbitrum. ASTER tokens will be launched in September 2025. On March 17, 2026, its own Layer 1 blockchain Aster Chain was officially launched.

Why do traders compare the two?

This comparison mainly stems from a sharp reversal in market share:

• Early 2025:Hyperliquid accounted for approximately 70% of the transaction volume of perpetual contract DEX.
• September 2025: With the launch of ASTER token and the endorsement of CZ, Aster occupied approximately 70% of the market share, while Hyperliquid fell to approximately 10%.
• April 2026:Hyperliquid recovered to 44%, Aster dropped to 15%.
• October 2026: Based on 30-day data from DefiLlama, Hyperliquid accounts for approximately 33%, and Aster accounts for approximately 10%.

Hyperliquid's recovery is partly due to the expansion of new markets. It reportedly regained trading volume after adding commodities such as oil, gold and silver.

Why is Aster's trading volume questioned?

The surge in Aster triggered censorship almost immediately. On October 5, 2025, DefiLlama founder 0xngmi removed Aster's perpetual contract trading volume from the website. He pointed out that Aster's trading volume was very consistent with Binance's perpetual contract trading volume, and Aster failed to provide low-level data to verify Wash Trading. Counter-trading refers to the use of self-trading to falsely increase trading volume. The move caused ASTER prices to fall by about 10% in 24 hours.

DefiLlama re-included Aster on October 19, 2025, but 0xngmi said the platform "is still a black box and we cannot verify data." Aster CEO Leonard argued that these models are due to API traders trying to maximize airdrop rewards, rather than knock-on transactions. This controversy has not yet been settled.

A commonly used measure by analysts is Open Interest, which is the total value of open positions. In April 2026, Hyperliquid's open contract value to trading volume ratio was 0.64, while Aster's was only 0.18, indicating that Aster has more short-term trading behavior and fewer open positions.

The main differences between Aster and Hyperliquid

The main differences are reflected in four aspects. Product data is quoted from Coin Bureau's June 2026 comparative report (unless otherwise noted).

Transparency and Privacy

On Hyperliquid, every order, withdrawal, transaction and settlement is publicly visible on the chain. Aster offers hidden orders and "Shield Mode". Aster Chain has also introduced zero-knowledge proof and covert address technology to curb "position hunting" behavior, in which traders attack large visible positions.

Leverage, Fees and Products

Leverage: Aster allows up to 1001 leverage for BTC/USD in its Degen model;Hyperliquid ranges from 3x to 40x depending on the market range.

Fees: Aster charges a 0% pending order fee (Maker) and a 0.04% taking order fee (Taker) for USDT perpetual contracts. Hyperliquid's basic gear is 0.015% pending order fee and 0.045% taking order fee.

Products: Aster has added tokenized stock perpetual contracts, its stablecoin USDF, and interest-bearing collateral such as asBNB. Hyperliquid has HIP-3, which allows external developers to deploy their own markets.

Financing and Background

Hyperliquid has no venture investors. Aster is supported by YZi Labs and is closely related to the BNB Chain ecosystem. According to DefiLlama, about 70% of Aster's US$793.12 million total lock-in value (TVL) is located on BNB Chain.

Token Economics

HYPE: The maximum supply is 1 billion pieces, and the circulation is 222.45 million pieces. Hyperliquid uses most of its fees to purchase HYPE and destroy it. According to The Coin Republic, the latest destruction removed 112,580 HYPE pieces worth $10.15 million. Team allocation accounted for 23.8% of total supply.

ASTER: The maximum supply is 8 billion pieces, and the circulation is 2.714 billion pieces. Aster reserves 53.5% of its supply for airdrops over 80 months and uses 20% to 40% of its daily perpetual contract fee for buybacks.

How does the latest data perform?

Based on data from DefiLlama and CoinGecko on October 7, 2026, the gap is as follows:

• 24-hour perpetual contract trading volume: Hyperliquid $6.11 billion, Aster $1.69 billion
• Open interest value: Hyperliquid US$8.72 billion, Aster US$1.42 billion
• Total lock-in value (TVL):Hyperliquid $7.35 billion, Aster $793.12 million
• 30-day fee income: Hyperliquid US$87.53 million, Aster US$5.34 million
• Value returned to token holders in 30 days: Hyperliquid $71.31 million, Aster $3.5 million

Analyst Rickie Sanchez wrote on October 6 that the main headwind facing HYPE is token unlocking, and about 73% of the supply is still not in circulation. He believes that breaking through $98 will be a stronger signal than moving towards $100.

Recent Feature Updates

In the past three months, new features have been introduced on both platforms.

Aster：

• On September 29, an over-the-counter (OTC) counter for perpetual contracts was opened, initially supporting BTC-USDT.
• Aster Vault will be launched on July 31, allowing users to create and invest in automated trading strategies.
• A four-week trading reward event begins on September 28.

Hyperliquid：

• Bloomberg Terminal now displays the price of selected Hyperliquid perpetual contracts.
• On August 1, HIP-4, which realized the market for unlicensed results, entered the test network stage.
• On October 6, the exchange set a historical record of 435,564 open positions.

Conclusion

Aster and Hyperliquid both run perpetual contract transactions on their respective Layer 1 chains, but they are constructed differently and funded. Hyperliquid provides a transparent order book, deeper liquidity and a mechanism for destroying HYPE through fee buybacks. Aster offers hidden orders, leverage of up to 1001 times, and equity perpetual contracts. Coin Bureau evaluates that Hyperliquid is suitable for traders who put liquidity first, while Aster is suitable for traders who pursue privacy and functional diversity.