Catenaa, Saturday, October 11, 2025-The native token of decentralized perpetuals exchange Aster fell more than 10% after Web3 data platform DefiLlama removed Aster’s perpetual volume metrics, citing potential wash trading concerns.
DefiLlama’s founder, 0xngmi, flagged a close correlation between Aster’s trading volumes and Binance, the exchange co-founded by Aster advisor Changpeng “CZ” Zhao.
Charts shared on X showed Aster’s perpetual volumes mirroring Binance activity from late Saturday into Sunday, while similar patterns were not observed on competitor Hyperliquid.
0xngmi said that because Aster does not provide granular order-level data, it is impossible to verify wash trading. Until such transparency is available, perpetual volume data for Aster will remain delisted.
The announcement triggered a swift market reaction, with ASTER losing roughly 10% in a single day, according to The Block’s price tracking.
Aster had recently led all perpetual DEXs tracked by DefiLlama in daily fees and volume before the volume correlation with Binance emerged.
The exchange could not be reached for comment, and CZ Zhao, who left Binance in 2023 following a Department of Justice plea deal, has yet to respond publicly.
