- Aster has rolled out hidden orders for users.
- Binance founder Changpeng Zhao recently advocated for dark pools on perp DEXs.
- Aster is the second-biggest perp DEX in terms of trading volume.
Trading volume on Aster is heating up.
The decentralised exchange for onchain perpetuals, or perp DEX, has already achieved a massive monthly trading volume record in June, according to data from DefiLlama — and it’s still going.
Aster’s monthly trading volume for June at more than $33 billion represents a threefold increase from the previous all-time high achieved a year ago, the data shows.
Rival Hyperliquid’s trading volume in June is almost five times that, but Aster’s surging trading volumes and new initiatives highlight how competition is intensifying.
Dark pools
The trading buzz comes as Aster rolled out hidden orders, a trading feature to shield users from front-running and price manipulation.
The rollout comes just days after Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, known among crypto pundits as CZ, called on perp DEXs to launch dark pools like that.
“If you’re looking to purchase $1 billion worth of a coin, you generally wouldn’t want others to notice your order until it’s completed,” Zhao said.
“Otherwise, people might try to buy before you, effectively front-running you. In the case of a DEX, this can lead to MEV attacks. This results in increased slippage, worse prices, and higher costs for you.”
Aster says its hidden order feature creates a shadowy trade zone where users can place and match orders without broadcasting their positions to the entire network.
The key advantage? Traders don’t move the market against themselves like James Wynn’s oversized Bitcoin trading position did in May.
The trader attracted liquidation hunters and he lost $100 million in paper profits in the process. Wynn’s high-profile liquidation became an argument for why perp DEXs need shadow zones.
Hidden orders are common in traditional finance. Institutional investors use them to avoid frontrunning and market slippage by privately matching trades off-book
But onchain, a dark pool is a more complex feature to offer.
That’s because public blockchains are transparent by default which means to create an opaque zone for hidden orders requires innovations like zero-knowledge proofs to hide transaction information until the trade is executed.
While the response from traders has been swift and Aster’s trading activity has surged, the protocol is still in Hyperliquid’s shadow.
Hyperliquid is the biggest perp DEX with over $186 billion in trading volume this month, according to DefiLlama. That’s close to 62% of the total volume for the market segment over the past 30 days.
But unlike Hyperliquid, Aster’s hasn’t released its native token. The protocol has a points programme for a possible airdrop and users are already registering activity on the protocol to secure what could be the next big token windfall.
That flow is making the onchain perps space even hotter than it’s ever been. Last month, Hyperliquid’s trading volume amounted to about 10% of Binance’s figures for crypto derivatives.
Crypto market movers
- Bitcoin has gained 1.8% over the past 24 hours and is at $107,173.
- Ethereum is up 0.8% over the same period to about $2,427.
What we’re reading
- Mining Bitcoin is about to get a whole lot easier — here’s what’s driving it ― DL News
- Crypto Markets Rebound After Iran-Israel Ceasefire Deal ― Unchained
- This one chain is crushing the competition… — Milk Road
- Crypto coin for Russian shadow payments moves $9bn — Financial Times
- EIP-7782: Ethereum’s Slot Time Could Drop to 6 Seconds ― Unchained
- Solana casino Luck.io hits $65m in bets after $500,000 influencer promo ― DL News
Osato Avan-Nomayo is our Nigeria-based DeFi correspondent. He covers DeFi and tech. Got a tip? Please contact him at osato@dlnews.com.
