Aster’s Open Interest Surges 33,500% in a Week, Challenging Rival Hyperliquid

Aster, a decentralized perpetuals exchange operating on the BNB Chain, experienced an astonishing increase in open interest, soaring nearly 33,500% within just a week and positioning itself to challenge its main competitor, Hyperliquid.

Significant Open Interest Growth

On Wednesday, data from CoinGlass indicated that Aster’s open interest skyrocketed from $3.72 million on Friday to an impressive $1.25 billion at the time of writing. This surge in active contracts indicates that traders are flocking to the platform, effectively challenging its largest rival, Hyperliquid.

Open interest represents the total number of outstanding contracts that remain unsettled, and it serves as a crucial metric for assessing liquidity and market confidence in a project. Aster’s significant rise in open interest reflects that traders are eager to invest their capital in the platform.

Total Value Locked (TVL) Shows Similar Increase

Alongside open interest, Aster’s total value locked (TVL) is also on the rise, another vital indicator in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector. According to DefiLlama data on Wednesday, Aster’s TVL reached $1.85 billion, marking a 196% increase from $625 million recorded on Friday.

Trading Volumes and Competition

DefiLlama data further revealed that Aster led daily perpetual trading volumes on Wednesday, achieving nearly $24.7 billion over the past 24 hours. This positioned Aster’s performance above Hyperliquid, which recorded approximately $10 billion on the same day. Other players such as edgeX and Lighter were close behind, with daily volumes of $8.25 billion and $6.18 billion, respectively.

While Aster excelled in daily volume, Hyperliquid still maintains deeper liquidity over longer durations. Hyperliquid continues to lead in terms of seven-day and 30-day perpetual volumes, with $66 billion recorded in the past week and close to $300 billion in the last 30 days.

Support and Promotion from Binance and CoinMarketCap

A spokesperson from BNB Chain stated on Friday that Aster has received support from both the BNB Chain and YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs), which included mentorship, ecosystem visibility, and access to technical and marketing resources. Additionally, the crypto data platform CoinMarketCap enhanced Aster’s visibility through its CMC Launch program, designed to showcase new projects.

Jin Choo, lead of CMC Launch, shared that the initiative to support Aster resulted in significant exposure. This included 400 million impressions from homepage banners, over 3 million tweet impressions, and a total reach of over 5 million via newsletters, app notifications, and media coverage.

“The campaign also recorded over 1.5 million views across live events, 1.5 million landing page clicks, and more than 500,000 clicks to Aster’s project page,” Choo noted.

Binance acquired CoinMarketCap in April 2020 for an undisclosed figure. However, when questioned if YZi Labs or Binance influenced Aster’s selection for the CMC Launch, Choo clarified that the project was chosen based solely on its merits. He emphasized that CMC Launch’s qualification criteria prioritize innovation, market potential, and community engagement.

“Binance and CoinMarketCap are separate entities with independent operations,” Choo reaffirmed. “Binance does not exert control or influence over the management and operations of CoinMarketCap, including how we promote projects.”