Surge in XRP Volumes on Aster DEX Parallels Binance, Fueling Market Speculation

DefiLlama has removed Aster’s perpetuals data after its founder flagged unusual correlations in XRP trading volumes, raising questions about the integrity of the decentralized exchange’s reported activity.

Earlier Monday, DefiLlama’s pseudonymous founder, 0xngmi, highlighted on X that Aster’s XRP perpetual volumes were almost perfectly aligned with Binance’s, suggesting potential wash trading or data manipulation. “Until we can verify if there’s wash trading, Aster perp volumes will be delisted,” 0xngmi stated.

Aster allows leveraged long and short positions on crypto assets, similar to other perpetual DEXs like Hyperliquid, without going through a centralized exchange. The platform recently topped DefiLlama’s leaderboard for daily fees and volume, briefly surpassing Hyperliquid.

Aster’s native token, ASTER, has surged from $0.09 to over $2 in under three weeks, delivering more than 1,500% gains for early investors. XRP and Ether volumes were major contributors to the reported metrics.

While a wash trading risk model rated Aster “low,” the one-to-one correlation with Binance volumes raised red flags. Hyperliquid, in contrast, had a 0.59 correlation with Binance and retained its metrics despite a “medium” risk rating.

Adding scrutiny, Binance listed ASTER with a “Seed Tag” on Monday. The timing drew attention as Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, an advisor to Aster, has been actively promoting the project on X.

ASTER prices initially fell 10% after DefiLlama’s delisting but rebounded following Binance’s listing. Aster has not yet responded to requests for comment.