Altcoin Spotlight: What is Aster (ASTER)
Here at MintDice.com, we are an online cryptocurrency casino that cares about customer education. As such, we create profiles for every cryptocurrency that enters the top 60 positions on CoinMarketCap.com.
This week, we discuss Aster, which is a decentralized exchange with a native stablecoin used to facilitate trades quickly and seamlessly. Read on to learn everything you need to know about Aster, and whether or not you should buy it.
What is Aster?
Aster is a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange, meaning individuals can use the platform to exchange crypto, without the creators (or an entity) needing to approve transactions. Transactions are automatically approved using a blockchain process.
Aster is unique in that it can be used with numerous other blockchains, most notably Solana, Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Binance. It allows both spot trading and futures trading and is specifically known for its perpetual trading options, making it similar to the HyperLiquid project.
How Does Aster Work?
Perpetual futures are a unique type of trading, typically allowing investors to trade assets they don’t own. They do this by borrowing funds “on paper” to back the trade. Most fiat futures trades have a specific date on which the trade matures. With perpetual futures, there is no maturity date.
Perpetual futures trades have two outcomes: short (where the trader placing the future trade believes the price of the asset will drop) or long (where the trader placing the future trade believes the price of the asset will rise). Because these trades rely highly on setting a leverage, futures traders often search for platforms where the most leverage is available to them. This is often Aster because they offer a massive 1,001x max leverage.
Aster, unlike many other projects featured in this series, is not its own blockchain. Rather, it is a solution that is applied to several blockchains, with its largest application being on the Binance blockchain. The platform utilizes zero-knowledge proofs to allow private trading. Traders have three major options for trading, which are as follows:
· Perpetual Mode (order-book based, low fees)
· 1001x Mode (simple, higher fees)
· Spot Moder (more traditional, advanced tools, deep liquidity)
While the focus of the Aster platform is trading, there are also options for yield farming, and staking, based on the platform you are using to participate. Aster also has its own stablecoin, USDF, which is pegged to USDT.
What is ASTER?
ASTER is the trading symbol of Aster. ASTER is a governance token, meaning owning a certain number allows you to participate in making decisions for the future of the Aster platform. ASTER is a BEP-20 token.
There is currently a maximum planned supply of ASTER (the native governance token of the platform) of 8 billion tokens. These tokens have been given out via airdrops and are used as a reward token for those regularly using the platform.
Who Created Aster?
Aster was created by an anonymous CEO who goes by the name Leonard. But believe it or not, Aster isn’t a new project; rather, it is a rebrand of two other projects, Astherus and APX. Little is known about Leonard, and though he has social profiles, they started only in March 2025 and offer very little information about the individual behind them. We suspect that Leonard isn’t one person, but rather several.
Very little is known about the other individuals behind the Aster project, except that the rebrand was complete in April 2025, and this is considered the start date of Aster. According to several sources, the CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, is a major shareholder in Aster.
Should You Buy Aster?
Overall, Aster isn’t the worst product we’ve featured in our Altcoin spotlight series, but it also leaves us with more questions than answers. We are always hesitant to invest in products without a public-facing CEO, and for a good reason. Other than Bitcoin, there are very few trustworthy projects in the cryptocurrency space with anonymous founders. In fact, most of the projects with anonymous founders are scams, and this may be no different.
Although we found a lot of information about the options Aster offers to traders, we struggled to find deeper information on how the platforms run and how they will continue to grow. Individuals on Reddit are similarly concerned, especially with such a large market cap (8 billion) and trading options that seem to promise the moon to traders without a substantial plan.
Of course, Aster as a project is new, having just launched in April 2025, so there is a chance that many of our questions could be answered in the coming months and years, but for now, it is just too risky a project to recommend an investment in.
While many websites push Aster with the usual sale tactics (of getting in early before it’s too late!), we doubt this token will go to the moon anytime soon—so there’s no harm in waiting to ensure your questions are answered before you invest. We also think that their posting that they have Changpeng Zhao’s backing everywhere is more of a red flag than a boast, and it doesn’t sit right with us. (Especially considering he spent time in prison!)
As a trading platform, we don’t see much of a problem with using Aster to trade. Just know that futures trading is extremely risky and can leave you in severe debt if you don’t know what you are doing.
Where Can You Buy Aster?
The best place to buy ASTER is on a trading platform you’ve used before and are familiar with. But if your usual platform doesn’t offer the token, below are some of your options:
· Binance
· Kraken
· Nexo
· Bit2Me
· Guardian
· OKX
· ByBit
These are not the only options for purchasing ASTER, so don’t be afraid to shop around; these are just the most popular platforms. Remember, buying and trading cryptocurrency is risky, no matter what you buy and sell. So never use money to buy cryptocurrency that you don’t intend to lose entirely.
