Aster, the $BNB Chain-aligned perpetuals exchange, has crossed 15 million registered users. The platform confirmed the milestone in a post on April 19, with its live counter ticking higher almost immediately after the announcement.
The number puts Aster firmly in second place among perp DEXs, trailing only Hyperliquid on most volume metrics while pulling ahead of rivals like edgeX, Lighter, and ApeX.
How big is 15 million in perp DEX terms?
In its official post, Aster said 15,050,000 traders had signed up. The figure on asterdex.com has since moved to 15.14 million.
For context, the user count sat near 9.5 million in February 2026. Adding roughly 5.5 million accounts in about two months is one of the sharpest adoption curves the perps sector has seen, and it lands at a moment when the wider category is already running at record volumes. Lifetime trading volume on the platform now sits at $4.45 trillion.
Where does Aster sit on the leaderboard?
DefiLlama’s perps dashboard tells the competitive story. On a 24-hour normalized basis, Hyperliquid leads at $4.896 billion, with Aster second at $1.853 billion. edgeX follows at $1.488 billion, Lighter at $1.355 billion, and ApeX at $1.112 billion.
Total 24-hour perp volume across all DEXs came in near $16.53 billion, with 30-day cumulative volume at roughly $601.6 billion. Aster’s own 30-day reported volume of $60.4 billion gives it close to 10 percent of that market.
Open interest is where Hyperliquid still dominates. Hyperliquid holds $7.407 billion in OI, over three times Aster’s $1.965 billion. The split hints at different user behavior: Hyperliquid retains more sticky capital, while Aster’s ratio of open interest to volume suggests heavier flip-and-exit trading.
Inside the platform
Aster is the product of a merger between APX Finance, an established perp trading engine with deep liquidity, and Astherus, a yield and liquidity protocol. The rebrand to Aster happened in early 2025, when the ASTER token replaced the legacy APX ticker. CZ’s YZi Labs is among its backers.
The design pitch is CEX-like speed with non-custodial settlement. That shows up in a few features traders tend to notice:
- Multi-chain trading without bridging
- Hidden orders that mask size and direction, cutting MEV exposure
- A Simple Mode with one-click trades up to 100x, alongside a Pro Mode
- Yield-bearing collateral and tokenized stock perps
The platform currently supports 181 symbols across crypto, equities, and commodities. TVL sits at $1.13 billion according to the homepage, while DefiLlama reports $888 million, with $BNB Chain holding the bulk at $662 million. Annualized fees have been tracking in the $80 million range.
Can Aster close the gap on Hyperliquid?
Short term, Hyperliquid’s lead in open interest and 30-day volume is substantial. The protocol cleared $187 billion in 30-day volume against Aster’s $60.4 billion, a roughly 3x gap. On daily volume, though, Aster has flipped Hyperliquid on occasion through late 2025, and user growth keeps widening the top of the funnel.
The next structural push is Aster Chain, a dedicated Layer 1 the team is building for private, high-speed perps. The design targets 100,000-plus TPS, ZK proofs, gasless trading, and protection against liquidation sniping. If it ships on spec, it addresses the main areas where Hyperliquid’s purpose-built L1 has had an edge.
For now, 15 million registered users gives Aster something most of its peers cannot match: sheer distribution. Whether that converts into durable open interest is the question the next quarter will answer.
Visit Aster onasterdex.com and follow@Aster_DEX on X for updates.
Sources:
- Aster on X announcing the 15 million registered user milestone
- DefiLlama Perps Dashboard for live perp DEX volume, open interest, and ranking data
- Aster Official Site for live user count, TVL, symbol count, and lifetime trading volume
