Aster DEX Faces User Activity Scrutiny Amid CZ Backing

Rising Scrutiny Around Aster DEX Volume Surge

Aster DEX has been reporting massive perpetual futures volumes between $20B and $29B weekly while running its final Stage 6 airdrop campaign launched on February 2, 2026. This spike has triggered fresh scrutiny from community analysts on X, who question whether the activity is organic or driven by wash trading, especially given the project’s links to Changpeng Zhao and YZi Labs.

This is not the first controversy. In October 2025, DeFiLlama delisted Aster’s perp data after volumes crossed $100B, citing suspicious mirroring with Binance and limited order transparency. The move led to a 15 to 20 percent price drop, but the token later rebounded following a $214M buyback and new utility launches, showing resilience despite repeated wash trading concerns.

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Claims vs Reality

The User Activity Debate

Fresh scrutiny intensified on February 18 after on-chain analyst Stacy Muur shared Token Terminal data showing Aster’s main yield stablecoin contract with just 6 daily active addresses, 51 weekly, and 346 monthly. These figures appeared inconsistent with the platform’s claimed $2.4B daily and over $17B weekly perpetual futures volume.

Supporters responded by arguing the data focused on a single contract, asUSDF, and did not reflect full platform activity. They cited broader metrics showing 4,673 unique traders in the past 24 hours, along with $1.1B in total value locked and $1.7B in open interest. The debate now centers on whether the reported volume reflects real trading or wash activity ahead of the final Stage 6 airdrop snapshot.

What Readers Should Watch Next

• Final Stage 6 airdrop snapshot – Expected any day now; watch for official announcement and whether Aster applies stricter Sybil filters or mass disqualifications.
• ASTER token price reaction – Monitor for 10–25% swings in the next 48–72 hours as FUD spreads; quick rebound would mirror the October 2025 pattern.
• Aster team or CZ response – Look for a transparency report, on-chain data dump, or CZ tweet defending volumes within the next 3–5 days.
• DeFiLlama or Dune Analytics update – If they delist Aster’s volume data again, it would be the second time in four months and likely trigger another leg down.