Who can replicate the miracle of "Aster"?
Written by: KarenZ, Foresight News
In the cryptocurrency market of 2025, decentralized perpetual contract exchanges (Perp DEX) have become one of the hottest tracks with unstoppable momentum.
Hyperliquid leads this wave, while the emergence of Aster and Avantis further ignites market enthusiasm and user interaction interest.
So, at this current stage, which Perp DEX platforms are worth paying attention to and interacting with?
Before reviewing Perp DEX and introducing related strategies, the author solemnly reminds that although there are expectations for airdrops when participating in the Perp DEX market, participants must remain vigilant, comprehensively consider potential risks, and weigh the following key factors:
Inherent Contract Risks: Perpetual contract trading is known for its high leverage characteristics, and users must always pay attention to controlling their positions and setting reasonable stop-losses to avoid potential market volatility risks.
Platform Endorsement Differences: Apart from product design and user experience, the endorsement power of the platform should not be overlooked. Aster's rise is partly due to Binance's strong endorsement and support from Zhao Changpeng; AVNT is backed by Coinbase and Peter Thiel, and such strong endorsements mean that subsequent projects may find it difficult to replicate the same level of increase.
Sustainability of Perp DEX Narrative: Although the current popularity is high, the sustainability of the narrative depends on regulatory changes, market fluctuations, and other factors. Users need to maintain rational judgment and avoid blindly following trends.
Increased Difficulty in Earning Points: Most Perp DEX platforms' point-earning activities have entered the mid-to-late stages, and the difficulty of earning points has significantly increased. Blindly chasing "airdrop expectations" may lead to a situation where "interaction costs exceed benefits."
Subsequent Token Incentive Mechanisms: Whether there will be token buyback and burn designs in the future.
Aster
Aster was renamed from the merger of Astherus and APX Finance at the end of 2024, positioning itself as a multi-chain perpetual trading platform. Previously, Astherus was selected as a project in the seventh season of Binance Labs incubation and received investment from Binance Labs (now YZi Labs).
In a simplified mode, Aster offers an anti-MEV one-click execution feature. In Pro mode, Aster adds 24/7 stock perpetual contracts, hidden orders, and grid trading features, supporting BNB Chain, Ethereum, Solana, and Arbitrum.
In terms of data performance, according to Dune data, Aster currently has over 1.97 million cumulative users, over 720,000 trading users, total revenue reaching $51.89 million, and a near 24-hour trading volume of $6 billion, accounting for about 40% of Hyperliquid's trading volume.
The Aster Genesis Phase 2 will end on October 6 at 07:59. 4% of the total supply of ASTER will be rewarded in Phase 2. Some factors measured for the second phase rewards include:
Trading Volume Score: The higher the trading volume on Aster Pro, the more Rh points earned. Eating orders can earn 2 times the points compared to placing orders.
Holding Time Score: The longer the holding time, the more Rh points earned (capped at 2 times the user's weekly trading volume).
Aster Asset Holding Score: Using Aster assets (such as asBNB or USDF) as margin for trading on Aster Pro (points capped at 2 times the user's weekly trading volume).
Realized Profit and Loss Score: Daily realized profit and loss (excluding funding fees and other costs) counts towards Rh points.
Referral Points and Team Points: Inviting others can earn 10% (level 1) or 5% (level 2) of their base points.
Lighter
Lighter was originally a decentralized spot order book on Arbitrum, later transforming into an application-level ZK-Rollup focused on perpetual contract trading, using custom zero-knowledge proof circuits for verifiable matching and settlement. Lighter does not charge users any trading fees.
Lighter's official website shows that its investors include a16z and Lightspeed Faction. Currently, Lighter has launched a private test mainnet (invitation code required).
In terms of data performance, on September 21, Lighter's TVL surpassed $500 million, with a 24-hour contract trading volume reaching $6.9 billion, accounting for about 46% of Hyperliquid's trading volume.
Currently, the author has not found specific rules for Lighter's point distribution. According to community user feedback, the difficulty of earning Lighter points has increased, and users need to assess the odds themselves.
edgeX
edgeX is a derivatives trading system based on an order book incubated by Amber Group. edgeX Exchange is the first MVP in the edgeX ecosystem, with plans to launch edgeX Telegram Bot, edgeX Leverage (supporting trading of US stocks, forex, commodity futures), edgeX Epool, edgeX Lend, edgeX Insurance, and other applications and modular components in the future.
edgeX contributor @ruiixyz stated on September 23 that edgeX is currently the second-largest decentralized perpetual trading platform by monthly revenue ($19 million), with a daily trading volume of $5 billion and over 100,000 active users.
The weight of edgeX points mainly lies in trading volume (60% of the pool), followed by referrals + ambassadors + events (20% of the pool), with TVL and Vault points occupying 10% of the pool, and liquidation points and OI points each allocated 5% of the pool points.
Paradex
Paradex is an application chain and hybrid derivatives exchange incubated by the cryptocurrency institutional liquidity platform Paradigm on Starknet. Paradex currently supports trading in futures, options, pre-market, and spot, without charging users any trading fees.
Official data from Paradex shows that the platform has a total of 32,607 users (who have deposited or traded), with a trading volume of $964 million in the past 24 hours.
The Paradex points program is currently in its second season, with ways to earn points including trading and maintaining open positions, providing bilateral liquidity, collateralizing Paradex Vaults, referrals, etc. Paradex announced plans to launch the DIME token in December 2024, with 20% of the tokens allocated for the genesis airdrop. However, the second season activities have been postponed, and the official end time has not yet been announced.
Extended
Extended, formerly known as X10, initially started as a hybrid cryptocurrency exchange using the StarkEx Layer 2 engine and migrated from StarkEx to Starknet in mid-2025. Extended plans to evolve from a Perp DEX into a complete open financial ecosystem supported by native unified margin, integrating perpetual contracts, spot markets, and comprehensive lending markets under one margin system.
Extended is led by Ruslan Fakhrutdinov, former crypto operations head at Revolut, and completed a $6.5 million funding round in April 2024, with participation from Tioga Capital, Semantic Ventures, Cherry Ventures, StarkWare, Cyber Fund, and angel investor Konstantin Lomashuk, founder of Lido.
The Extended points program Season 1 launched on April 29, 2025, distributing 1.2 million points weekly. Ways to earn points include trading, providing liquidity, and referrals.
Ethereal
Ethereal is a decentralized spot and perpetual contract trading platform powered by USDe, which will be built on the Converge chain jointly launched by Ethena and Securitize. Ethereal is about to launch its mainnet, and the registration for the mainnet waitlist is currently open.
Currently, the strategy that Ethereal can operate is to deposit USDe into Ethereal to receive eUSDe receipt tokens, which can accumulate Ethereal points and unlock up to 30 times Ethena reward multipliers.
GRVT
GRVT is a hybrid trading and investment market that currently supports trading in perpetual contracts and will later support trading and investing in spot, options, and RWA.
In September 2025, GRVT announced the completion of a $19 million Series A funding round, led by ZKsync, Further Ventures, EigenCloud, and 500 Global, with total funding reaching $26.1 million.
GRVT plans to conduct its TGE in Q1 2026. Starting from September 23, GRVT launched the Rewards 2.0 program, with ways to earn points including deposits, trading, and referrals. Additionally, GRVT stated that deposits can earn an annualized yield of 10%.
Ostium
Ostium is an open-source decentralized exchange based on Arbitrum, supporting trading in stocks, commodities, forex, indices, and cryptocurrency contracts, with leverage of up to 200 times.
Ostium Labs completed a $3.5 million funding round in October 2023, co-led by General Catalyst and LocalGlobe, with participation from SIG, Alliance, and Balaji Srinivasan.
Ways to earn Ostium points include trading, referrals, and staking LP.
vooi
vooi is a cross-chain perpetual contract DEX aggregator, where the VOOI Pro version is an order book trading terminal, and the VOOI Light version is a unified trading platform driven by chain abstraction (integrating GMX, Ostium, and KiloEx).
vooi was selected for the 7th season of the MVB Accelerator Program in March 2024 and subsequently received investment from Binance Labs. In March 2025, VOOI announced the completion of $1.25 million in community-led financing on echo.
vooi allocates 20 million points weekly, of which 10 million points are used to reward contract trading users in the Light version, 4 million points reward contract trading users in the Pro version, and 6 million points are awarded to spot and RWA trading users. Additionally, inviting friends can earn 15% of the trading points from the friends' trades.
StandX
StandX supports margin trading of perpetual contracts using yield-earning stablecoin collateral. StandX's official documentation shows that the core team consists of members from the founding team of Binance Futures and professionals with backgrounds from Goldman Sachs. StandX emphasizes that the platform is fully supported by its own funds and has not accepted any external investments.
Currently, StandX supports earning points through pre-deposits, specifically by minting and pre-depositing DUSD using USDT or USDC. Additionally, points can be earned through referrals, providing DUSD liquidity, holding LP tokens, holding DUSD YT on RateX, and trading DUSD in DEX Pools.
Astros
Astros is a DEX aggregator and perpetual contract market in the Sui ecosystem, supported by NAVI Protocol. Currently, Astros has soft-launched its perpetual contract DEX.
The Astros website will periodically release various Odyssey, trading, and interaction activities.
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