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Aster, the decentralized perpetuals exchange with backing from Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, generated more revenue than Tether in the last 24 hours.
According to DeFiLlama data, Aster ranked as the highest revenue-generating protocol in the past 24 hours, surpassing Tether and Circle, the two leading stablecoin issuers.
Over the last week, the exchange recorded roughly $93.5 million in fee revenue, which is second only to Tether’s $154.5 million. By comparison, Hyperliquid, long regarded as the dominant perpetuals exchange, reported just $26.1 million in the same period.
The revenue surge aligns with soaring trading activity. Aster processed about $185 billion in perpetuals trading volume over the past week, more than doubling Hyperliquid’s $80.5 billion.
This sharp increase reflects how quickly traders are shifting liquidity toward the new entrant, drawn by both its performance and its positioning as a major decentralized exchange.
Considering this, Zhao argued that Aster should be seen as competing directly with Binance rather than Hyperliquid.
While that positioning casts Aster as a direct rival to the centralized exchange, Zhao added that its success could still benefit the BNB ecosystem.
Zhao’s statement about Aster is not surprising, considering he is an advisor to the project and his family office, YZi Labs, is an investor in it. Additionally, Aster is relying on the BNB Chain infrastructure for its operations.
In addition, the Binance founder has confirmed that some of the centralized exchange’s ex-workers are part of the Aster team.
ASTER token buyback?
Alongside its trading surge, speculation about a potential token buyback has begun circulating across X and Discord.
Screenshots shared by several influencers suggest the team is considering repurchasing tokens from the open market, a move that could further energize bullish sentiment.
Token buybacks, already a growing trend in the crypto space, mirror traditional corporate share repurchase programs. By buying back tokens, protocols signal confidence in their long-term value while creating scarcity that may drive price appreciation.
For Aster, such a strategy would reinforce its recent rally, which has already seen its token soar more than 2,000% in the past month.