September was a milestone month for perpetual decentralized exchanges (DEXes) as monthly trading volume surpassed $1 trillion for the first time in history.

Data from DeFiLlama shows that perpetual DEXes recorded $1.14 trillion in trading volume, marking a 50% increase from the month prior, led by Hyperliquid and its fast-growing rival Aster.

In the last week alone, Aster recorded $415 billion in perpetual volume, eclipsing Hyperliquid’s $70 billion in the same period.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

The BNB Chain-based app is backed by Binance founder Changpeng Zhao’s family office YZi Labs. Its native token ASTER has rallied 2,000% in two weeks and 11% in the last day amid speculation that Binance would soon list the token for spot trading.

Blockchain data shows that Binance spot wallets had begun testing deposits of ASTER.