YZi Labs-Backed Perp DEX Aster Delays Airdrop Over Data Issues

Aster (ASTER), the decentralized exchange backed by Binance founder Changpeng Zhao’s investment firm YZi Labs, has postponed its upcoming airdrop after identifying “potential data inconsistencies.”

Originally set for October 14, the airdrop will now take place on October 20, pending internal verification, the team announced on Friday.

Aster Promises Fair Adjustments After Users Flag Airdrop Allocation Errors

The Aster team said it would update “certain users’ allocations where needed,” noting that “for most users, allocations should not fall below the final snapshot RH% in each epoch.”

The cause of the discrepancies was not fully detailed, but the decision follows user complaints about inaccurate results from the “S2 airdrop checker” tool released earlier in the day.

One trader claimed an allocation of only 336 ASTER tokens despite having generated over $9 million in trading volume. In total, 153,000 wallets are eligible for the Aster Genesis: Stage 2 airdrop.

Formerly known as APX Finance, Aster is a cross-chain perpetual futures DEX operating on Solana, Ethereum, Arbitrum, and BNB Chain.

The platform, which aims to rival Hyperliquid, recorded more than $420 billion in trading activity last month, according to The Block.

At the time of writing, ASTER is trading near $1.69, largely steady despite broader market weakness driven by renewed trade tensions following Donald Trump’s announcement of 100% tariffs on Chinese imports.

Last week, DeFiLlama temporarily removed trading volume data for Aster after detecting unusually high correlations with Binance’s perpetual volumes.

Co-founder 0xngmi announced the delisting on October 5, citing data integrity concerns after Aster’s XRP/USDT and ETH/USDT pairs showed nearly 1:1 correlation ratios with Binance.

The analytics site said it lacks the granular data needed to confirm potential wash trading, prompting the suspension until verification becomes possible.

The move has divided the crypto community, sparking debate over whether the volumes were manipulated or simply reflected a liquidity migration from Binance to Aster.

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT criticized Anndy Lian for downplaying the issue, while Lian argued that volume alignment across major projects is normal and that Aster’s activity mirrors broader market behavior.

Such an awful take normalizing wash trading is bad for the industry

“I am commenting on this fairly as an observer”

>Zero posts about HYPE and only two posts mentioning HL which Aster was also referenced

>Meanwhile almost every other post is about Aster

Worst thing Aster… pic.twitter.com/UoE1WX4OHm

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) October 6, 2025

He added that aggressive spending to gain market share is a business decision, not necessarily manipulation.

Aster Reimburses Traders After XPL Price Glitch Triggers Liquidations

Last month, Aster reimbursed users in USDT after a sudden price spike in the XPL perpetual contract triggered forced liquidations.

The anomaly, which occurred during the transition from pre-launch to live trading, saw the price of XPL briefly surge to over $4, well above its $1.30 average on other platforms.

The exchange responded quickly, completing the first round of reimbursements within hours and compensating affected traders for liquidation and trading fees.

While the exact cause remains unconfirmed, early speculation points to a misconfigured index price or missing sync with live market data. Aster has pledged to continue its investigation into the incident.

The glitch followed the mainnet launch of Plasma, a stablecoin-focused Layer 1 whose native token XPL rapidly hit a $12 billion valuation.