Decentralized exchange Aster has surpassed rival Hyperliquid in daily perpetual trading volume. 

Aster topped the charts for 24-hour perpetual trading volume with $29.5 billion, surpassing Hyperliquid’s $10 billion on the same day, as per data from DeFiLlama. 

Aster’s open interest also surged nearly 600% in less than a week, jumping from $142.7 million on Friday to $1.03 billion on Wednesday, according to data from CoinGlass. 

However, Hyperliquid’s open interest still sits higher at $2.17 billion, and has deeper liquidity over a longer period with $299 billion in 30-day perpetual volume compared with Aster’s $48 billion.

Aster’s rise comes after being promoted by Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who is also one of the largest holders of Aster’s native token ASTER. Aster is backed by YZi Labs, the family office run by Zhao and Binance co-founder Yi He.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

Some users argue that Aster’s claims of being a DEX are entirely false given that its documentation does not specify any information on the underlying custom technology layer.

“Unlike Hyperliquid, Aster has no validators, consensus, blocks, explorers, or anything related to the blockchain tech. they claim to be a DEX, but that’s misleading,” said HYPE investor altoshi on X.

“Usage of smart contracts is only limited to deposits to their CEX. execution doesn’t rely on smart contracts or decentralized infrastructure AT ALL.”