作者 | Joseph本文内容不代表吴区块链观点，不构成任何投资或理财建议。读者应遵守各自司法管辖区的法律法规。过去一年，Aster的发展可以概括为一个明显的进步，从单一的交易产品发展成为交易和基础设施双轮驱动的项目。回顾这一年的关键里程碑，有三个重大转折点。首先，在Perp DEX板块快速崛起的过程中，Aster定位正确，抓住了结构性机会，交易量持续增长并屡创新高。其次，项目完成了TGE和品牌升级，从APX过渡到Aster。这不仅仅是更名，而是对产品能力、定位、市场认知的全面重塑。 TGE的成功执行也显着提升了Aster的市场认知度和估值预期。随后，Aster Chain主网的上线，标志着Aster从交易产品向全生态的转变，开始提供交易服务
从结果来看，Aster过去一年发生的变化并不局限于规模的扩张，而是体现了从交易平台向围绕链上衍生品交易场景构建的基础设施项目的转变。关键的转折点不是在有利的条件下扩张，而是在质疑中决策这些里程碑并不是在有利的环境下自然实现的。对于Aster来说，关键的转折点发生在品牌重组和TGE之前。当时，市场主要由Hyperliquid主导，人们普遍认为这个领域很难出现真正有竞争力的挑战者。在此背景下，
Author | Joseph
The content of this article does not represent the views of Wu Blockchain and does not constitute any investment or financial advice. Readers are required to comply with the laws and regulations of their respective jurisdictions.
Over the past year, Aster’s development can be summarized as a clear progression, evolving from a single trading product into a project driven by both trading and infrastructure.
Looking back at the key milestones over the year, there are three major turning points. First, during the rapid rise of the Perp DEX sector, Aster positioned itself in the right direction and captured structural opportunities, with trading volume continuing to grow and reaching new highs. Second, the project completed its TGE and brand upgrade, transitioning from APX to Aster. This was not merely a name change, but a comprehensive reshaping of product capabilities, positioning, and market perception. The successful execution of the TGE also significantly improved market awareness and valuation expectations for Aster. Subsequently, the launch of the Aster Chain mainnet marked Aster’s transition from a trading product toward a full ecosystem, beginning to offer a trading infrastructure that combines onchain transparency with optional privacy features.
From an outcome perspective, the changes Aster has undergone over the past year are not limited to an expansion in scale, but rather reflect a transition from a trading platform into an infrastructure project built around onchain derivatives trading scenarios.
The Key Turning Point Was Not Expansion in Favorable Conditions but Decision Making Amid Doubt
These milestones were not achieved naturally in a favorable environment. For Aster, the critical turning point occurred before the brand restructuring and TGE.
At that time, the market was largely dominated by Hyperliquid, and there was a broad consensus that it would be difficult for truly competitive challengers to emerge in this sector. Against this backdrop, Aster’s TGE was not initially favored by the market, and external valuation expectations remained relatively conservative. At the same time, the team seriously considered whether to delay the TGE, as there was still room for optimization before the product’s official launch.
In the end, Aster chose execution speed over waiting for a more perfect state. In hindsight, this was arguably the most important decision made over the past year. The TGE ultimately delivered results that significantly exceeded expectations and prompted the market to reassess the value of the Perp DEX sector.
This experience also led the team to a clear conclusion: in a market like Perp DEX that remains in an early stage, there is no standard answer or optimal path. Many forms of industry consensus apply only to mature stages, while in truly innovative fields, progress often depends on judgment and execution. There are no shortcuts and no formulaic solutions. What ultimately matters comes down to two things: conviction in the chosen direction and the ability to execute it with consistency and focus.
The Core of Aster L1 Is Not Just Speed or Privacy
If the previous phase of Aster focused on validating demand through trading products, the launch of Aster Chain represents a shift toward addressing a more fundamental question: how should the infrastructure for onchain derivatives trading be redesigned.
From the perspectives of performance, security, and architecture, the differentiation of Aster L1 goes beyond simply being faster or more private. It is purpose built from the outset for onchain derivatives trading scenarios. Compared with many general purpose L1s, Aster places greater emphasis on balancing trading performance, privacy protection, and verifiability. The goal is to retain user self custody and onchain verifiability while delivering an execution experience that approaches that of centralized exchanges.
Within this design, a key component is ZK-verifiable encryption plus Stealth Address mechanism. For users who enable account privacy, the Stealth Address mechanism generates a one-time address for each transaction, making it difficult for external observers to link multiple transactions to the same real account, thereby preventing onchain profiling, position tracking, or strategy inference. However, Aster does not simply hide data. Instead, it leverages zero knowledge proofs to ensure that private transactions remain verifiable. In other words, order details are not exposed onchain, but the transactions themselves can still be verified. At the same time, users can selectively disclose and verify their full transaction history through a viewer pass.
The essence of this model lies in attempting to find a more practical balance between onchain transparency and trading privacy. Many chains either emphasize full transparency, making large accounts and strategy accounts easy to track, or prioritize privacy while introducing challenges in verification and regulatory compatibility. Aster focuses on solving a more specific trading problem: how to preserve onchain settlement, auditability, and verifiability without sacrificing trading privacy. For example, hidden orders on Aster must always go through ZK verification, and when account privacy is enabled, internal transfers between users are restricted. This indicates that Aster is not pursuing absolute anonymity, but rather a controlled and verifiable privacy model.
At the same time, Aster’s approach to performance is not based on the conventional narrative of higher TPS often seen in public chains, but is instead grounded in actual trading scenarios. Aster Chain adopts a PoSA consensus mechanism, combined with a node aggregation engine and a block pre confirmation mechanism, targeting a 50 millisecond block time, up to 100,000 TPS, and a zero gas trading experience. The focus is not on the metrics themselves, but on minimizing the gap between onchain trading and the experience of centralized exchanges. For high frequency trading scenarios such as perpetual contracts, low latency, fast confirmation, and stable matching are often more critical than generalized smart contract capabilities.
Furthermore, Aster does not build a general purpose chain first and then layer trading applications on top, but instead integrates the trading system directly into the underlying architecture from the outset. The clearinghouse on Aster Chain is responsible for managing margin balances and position states, while each perpetual market operates with its own independent order book. The oracle system aggregates data from 14 major exchanges to compute a weighted median price, which is used for mark pricing, funding rate calculation, take profit and stop loss triggers, and liquidation decisions. From the beginning, Aster has treated perpetual trading, margin management, and clearing logic as core components of its infrastructure. This trading native chain design is the fundamental distinction between Aster and many general purpose L1s.
From Perp DEX to L1 Aster Is Taking a Different Path
Aster’s transition from a Perp DEX to an L1 ecosystem does not require following the traditional path of launching a chain first, then searching for applications, and finally acquiring users.
For Aster, this is fundamentally a competition for liquidity. For users, the ideal state is one where there is no need to clearly distinguish whether the underlying system is a CEX or a DEX. In this sense, users of Aster’s Perp DEX are essentially already users of Aster Chain. Aster launched its mainnet on the basis of an existing user base and revenue, rather than waiting until after the mainnet launch to search for real demand. This path differs from the conventional model, but aligns more closely with the common logic behind many successful projects in this cycle, which is to validate demand through real trading activity and real users before extending infrastructure upward.
Based on this approach, Aster’s current ecosystem strategy is relatively clear, with the core focus on building a developer driven trading ecosystem through Aster Code. The initial group of strategic partners includes Binance Web3 Wallet, Trust Wallet, Safepal, Genius Terminal, Polarise, NOFA, Wallet V, ChimpX, and VergeX, covering multiple key areas within the Perp DEX ecosystem.
Aster Code can be understood as a revenue sharing trading infrastructure layer. Its value lies not only in providing open interfaces, but in lowering the barrier to building onchain trading products while enabling a more complete business model. Developers can build their own trading interfaces on top of Aster’s infrastructure and earn a share of Builder Fees generated from user trading activity. At the same time, Aster provides a full set of APIs and trading infrastructure, eliminating the need for developers to build their own matching engines. By focusing only on front end UI development, products can be launched more efficiently. The system also requires users to explicitly authorize agent permissions and set limits on Builder fees before trading, enhancing transparency and trust. This is complemented by real time data monitoring, automated recording and settlement, and a withdrawal mechanism that allows earnings to be claimed at any time.
From this perspective, the reason Aster is able to attract developers and institutions is straightforward. It is attempting to combine performance, privacy, and a sustainable revenue model, enabling external teams not only to integrate with a protocol, but to build their own onchain derivatives products and businesses around Aster.
In the Next Year Aster Aims to Deepen This Path
For the next 12 months, Aster’s direction is relatively clear. In the upcoming phase, the project will focus on several key areas, including attracting high quality trading users, particularly those with privacy needs, professional traders, and institutions; continuing to expand asset coverage and liquidity depth; further scaling the ecosystem through Aster Code and Aster Chain; strengthening token utility and governance mechanisms; and continuously improving the trading experience, especially UI and UX.
Within the current roadmap, the most certain core focus is the advancement and refinement of Aster Code. Its foundation lies in a high performance matching and clearing engine, with an upper layer consisting of open interfaces and developer access. Aster aims to enable developers and institutions to build onchain derivatives trading products more efficiently while maintaining performance, privacy, and competitiveness.
In addition, Aster is closely monitoring two areas: prediction markets and AI plus trading. The rationale is straightforward. There is significant overlap between prediction market users and perpetual traders, creating natural cross selling opportunities and similar user behavior models. For a project that originates from derivatives trading, these adjacent sectors offer clear expansion potential. In the AI plus trading space, Aster’s positioning is also well defined. It does not aim to build AI itself, but to provide infrastructure for AI. At present, Aster has already introduced interfaces for AI agents, including Skills and MCP. Its strategy is not to develop an AI application layer product directly, but to support AI developers in building tools on Aster, while continuously refining its offerings based on developer feedback. The goal is to make Aster not only user friendly for human traders, but also highly attractive to AI agents.
Compared with Predicting Cycles Aster Places Greater Trust in Continuous Building
When it comes to the current market cycle, the Aster team has not provided any prediction oriented judgment. The team’s stance is straightforward. The real way to navigate through cycles has never been to predict the market, but to continue building. Regardless of whether the market is in a bull or bear phase, the only reliable path toward the next ATH is to survive and continue creating value.
Looking back at Aster’s story over the past year, it serves as a clear illustration of this principle. Rather than replicating success in a fully validated sector, Aster operated in a highly competitive market where consensus had not yet fully formed, using trading products to validate demand first and then expanding boundaries through infrastructure. In hindsight, from trading volume growth to the TGE and brand upgrade, and then to the launch of the Aster Chain mainnet, what Aster has accomplished is not merely product expansion, but the establishment of a path from a trading platform to trading native infrastructure. The question it now seeks to address is no longer just how to build a stronger Perp DEX, but how to advance onchain trading into a broader and more mature next phase.
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