Can Aster and SunPerp rewrite the existing DEX landscape?

Deng Tong, Golden Finance

In August of this year, Arthur Hayes predicted that Hyperliquid's token had a 126-fold upside potential, noting that the expansion of stablecoins would increase DEX annualized fees from its current $1.2 billion in revenue to $258 billion.

HYPE is one of the best-performing altcoins today, having risen 66.3% over the past three months to $57.52 at press time. Hyperliquid is now facing two formidable competitors: Aster, Binance's decentralized crypto derivatives exchange, and SunPerp, the Tron ecosystem's decentralized perpetual swaps platform. What are the key features of Aster and SunPerp? Why did Binance and Tron launch these two competing products so quickly? 1. Aster Aster, a decentralized perpetual swaps exchange, launched in July of this year, is backed by CZ's YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs) and PancakeSwap, BNB Chain's leading DEX. Aster aims to offer the performance of centralized platforms with the trustlessness of DeFi. Invested in by venture capital firm YZi Labs, Aster aims to meet the core needs of every trader, from institutional to retail, and is a direct competitor to Hyperliquid. Aster aims to cater to a variety of trading styles through two distinct modes. The Professional mode is based on an order book model similar to that of centralized exchanges. This design provides deep liquidity and minimizes slippage, making it particularly suitable for major trading pairs like BTC/USD. The Simple mode utilizes the ALP (Aster Liquidity Pool) model, allowing traders to open positions in a shared liquidity pool, enabling a more streamlined one-click trading experience with no deposit required. On September 8th, Aster officially announced the token economics model for its native token, ASTER. ASTER has a total supply of 8 billion and is issued on Binance Smart Chain using the BEP-20 format. Token distribution ratio is as follows: 53.5% (approximately 4.28 billion tokens) for community airdrops, of which 8.8% (704 million tokens) will be unlocked at the TGE on September 17, 2025; 30% (2.4 billion tokens) for the ecosystem and community, which will be linearly released over 20 months; 7% (560 million tokens) for the treasury, which will be fully locked until approved by the governance mechanism; 5% (400 million tokens) for the team and advisors, which will be 100% locked in the first year, followed by linear release over 40 months; 4.5% (360 million tokens) for liquidity and listing, which will be fully unlocked at the TGE. ASTER will be launched on September 17th, and users can apply for the airdrop. Huobi HTX launched ASTER at 3:00 PM today, and Binace Alpha has also launched ASTER.

2. SunPerp

Today, Justin Sun also posted on X: "The prospects of Perp Dex on TRON are bright. Tron is the main network of USDT, and Perp is one of the earliest use cases of USDT. Although it came late, as the saying goes: the best time to plant trees was ten years ago, the second best time to plant trees is now. http://sunperp.com is finally here."

According to the SunPerp official website, SunPerp has the characteristics of high liquidity and zero fees, which can achieve instant order execution, zero slippage, and smooth entry/exit of large transactions. SunPerp's vision is to enable high-performance derivatives trading for Tron users. The launch of SunPerp will further enhance the Tron ecosystem: by expanding derivatives trading products, sharing a market share with Hyperliquid, and attracting more users through high-liquid trading. III. Why are Binance and TRON so eager to launch DEXs? 1. Pressure from Hyperliquid Since 2024, perpetual swaps have experienced a resurgence as a trading tool. During the bull market of 2021-2022, the average daily trading volume for perpetual swaps was approximately $5 billion. By early 2025, this figure regularly exceeded $15 billion, with Hyperliquid accounting for nearly two-thirds of this volume. Hyperliquid appears to have taken the DEX throne. dYdX (green) will dominate in 2023-2024, while Hyperliquid (pink) will dominate in 2025. According to Coingecko data, Hyperliquid currently ranks 6th among derivatives exchanges, ahead of many established exchanges. This also indicates that there is fierce competition between DEXs and CEXs. There is no doubt that Hyperliquid, having won the competition within DEX, is seizing market share from CEXs. 2. Seize the Lead in the DEX Market According to a CoinGecko report, trading volume on centralized exchanges like Binance declined in the second quarter, while decentralized exchanges achieved a record high market share in spot cryptocurrency trading. DEX spot trading volume soared to $876.3 billion, up over 25% from the previous quarter. Meanwhile, CEX trading volume fell sharply, with spot trading volume on major platforms dropping nearly 28% to $3.9 trillion. This means the DEX-to-CEX trading volume ratio jumped to a record high of 0.23, indicating growing investor demand for direct on-chain trading. DEXs appear to be on the rise. According to Token Terminal data, DEX trading volume has increased by 460% over the past two years. However, compared to CEXs, DEXs still have significant room for growth. As Arthur Hayes stated at the beginning of this article, DEXs have broad prospects for development. Therefore, Binance and TRON are now investing in DEXs, seemingly aiming to seize an early opportunity in this emerging market. 3. Improving Their Ecosystems Binance and TRON lack decentralized perpetual contract platforms in their native ecosystems. The launch of Aster and SunPerp complements their existing ecosystems, improving them, attracting more users, and enhancing industry competitiveness. With the addition of DEXs, both platforms can form a more comprehensive ecosystem of CEX+DEX+public blockchain, meeting more user needs. Aster's professional model (order book model) and simple model (ALP liquidity pool model) meet the diverse trading needs of both institutional and retail investors while strengthening Binance's presence in the DEX space. TRON is the primary circulation network for USDT, and perpetual contracts are one of USDT's core application scenarios. SunPerp's zero-fee feature can directly attract TRON participants to derivatives trading, further boosting the ecosystem's vitality. Binance's launch of Aster and TRON's listing of SunPerp are inevitable outcomes of DEX development reaching a certain stage and beginning to threaten CEXs. The increasing and decreasing trading volumes of DEXs and CEXs further highlight the growing trust users have in on-chain transactions. Hyperliquid is facing challenges from Aster and SunPerp, and the future landscape of DEXs may be on the verge of being reshaped.