Perpetual decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volumes reached an unprecedented $70 billion on Thursday, driven largely by the BNB Chain-based platform Aster, which accounted for over 50% of total activity with nearly $36 billion in 24-hour volume. This surge followed consecutive record-breaking days, including $52 billion on Tuesday and $67 billion on Wednesday, outpacing competitors like Hyperliquid and Lighter.
High-profile investor Mr. Beast (Jimmy Donaldson) purchased 538,384 ASTER tokens worth approximately $990,000 over three days, using a $1 million USDT deposit split between wallets. His average buy price was around $1.87 per token. Rumors of Trump family involvement via Truth Social circulated but remain unverified, with on-chain data suggesting Galaxy Digital ties instead.
Whale activity intensified, with two wallets holding 129.59 million ASTER tokens ($259 million), representing 7.82% of the circulating supply. Aster's metrics show rapid growth: total value locked (TVL) doubled to over $2 billion in a day, open interest hit $1.25 billion within a week, and Friday's volume exceeded $400 million.
ASTER's price surged over 2,000% in two weeks, reaching an all-time high of $2.30 before correcting to around $1.80. The platform faced criticism from Moonrock Capital's Simon Dedic, who labeled its model a 'crime-ponzi playbook', and addressed a bug in its Plasma (XPL) market that triggered liquidations, though reimbursements were swiftly issued.
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