DeFiLlama, a prominent decentralized finance (DeFi) analytics platform, has announced the delisting of perpetual futures volume data for Aster, a decentralized exchange (DEX), due to concerns regarding data integrity. This decision follows observations that Aster's trading volume closely mirrors that of Binance, raising suspicions of wash trading.
0xngmi, a pseudonymous co-founder of DeFiLlama, highlighted the issue, stating that the correlation ratio between Binance and Aster trading volumes is approximately 1. According to 0xngmi, Aster does not provide sufficiently granular data to verify the legitimacy of orders, making it difficult to distinguish between genuine trading activity and wash trading. Wash trading involves artificially inflating trading volumes through self-generated trades. DeFiLlama has stated it would delist Aster's perpetual data until the exchange could provide greater transparency.
Aster emerged in September as a competitor to Hyperliquid, another decentralized perpetual crypto futures exchange. The platform quickly garnered attention within the crypto community, partly due to ties between Aster and CZ, the co-founder of Binance.
The delisting decision by DeFiLlama has seemingly impacted the market, with the price of ASTER, the token associated with the exchange, plummeting over 10% to $1.86. This price drop reflects a loss of investor confidence in the platform following the integrity concerns raised by DeFiLlama.
Adding to the market pressure, Aster's airdrop policy, which allowed recipients to immediately sell 4% of the token supply, has further intensified selling pressure, leading some analysts to warn of a potential drop to $1.
The crypto community's response to the delisting has been mixed. Some have urged DeFiLlama to retain the data but with warning tags, while 0xngmi has argued that such a move would distort the overall data. Leonard, Aster's CEO, has hinted at future vesting rules for airdrops, acknowledging the need to balance speculative growth with governance and trust restoration.
Despite the controversy, Aster has experienced periods of significant growth. In the week of September 24, open interest on Aster surged by over 33,500%. Daily perpetual trading volume reached an all-time high of $60 billion on September 25, attributed to Aster's growth in capturing market share. However, questions about the sustainability of this growth persist, with some observers expressing skepticism about the organic nature of the trading activity, citing gamified incentives and weak vesting rules.
