DeFiLlama has officially removed perpetual futures volume data for Aster.

This decision was made amid concerns regarding suspicious trading activities that bear similarities to those observed on Binance.

DeFiLlama Moves to Delist Aster (ASTER)

0xngmi, the pseudonymous co-founder of DeFiLlama, shared on X about an ongoing investigation regarding the trading volumes of the BNB-based decentralized exchange. He compared trading pairs such as XRPUSD and ETHUSDT on Aster with its competitor Hyperliquid. The results revealed an almost perfect correlation between Aster’s trades and Binance’s perpetual futures volumes, while Hyperliquid displayed some discrepancies.

The analytics platform admitted it was unable to verify intricate order data, such as market maker or filler addresses, making it challenging to ascertain whether the trades were legitimate or artificially manipulated. Consequently, Aster’s perpetual data was taken down from the DeFiLlama dashboard.

Aster, which launched in September, swiftly emerged as a significant competitor to Hyperliquid, with its daily perpetual trading volume surging to $60 billion by late September, overtaking its rival temporarily.

Support for the exchange’s dominance was further bolstered by CZ’s public endorsement and backing from YZi Labs, which has a minority stake through its earlier investment in Astherus.

0xngmi’s Response to Community Backlash

The delisting has garnered mixed feedback from the X crypto community. While some applauded DeFiLlama’s decision, considering it a step towards safeguarding data integrity, others criticized it for perceived bias and fearmongering.

0xngmi has denied allegations of conflicts of interest, clarifying that he has never held HYPE or ASTER tokens or entered into any trading positions involving them. He also dispelled accusations of injustice by noting that similar actions were taken against other exchanges.

In an update, he underlined that the platform’s credibility relies on delivering trustworthy data since investment decisions are based on such information. He further rejected contentions that the delisting was influenced by payments, attributing the action to an unusual surge in trading volumes, which prompted a reassessment.

“All we care about is the integrity of our data because it is crucial for users to be able to trust it,” stated 0xngmi.

He added that the decision was taken transparently to avoid previous rumors of undisclosed agreements stemming from a prior discreet delisting of Aster. He concluded by stating that issuing a prior warning was unfeasible, given that Aster’s API would continue to distort general data.