ASTER token rallies as privacy-preserving native blockchain powering DEX mainnets

Aster, the perps DEX backed by Changpeng Zhao’s family office YZi Labs, has mainneted its native privacy-enabled Layer 1 blockchain, according to a Tuesday announcement on X.

The chain is looking to "dismantle the 'transparency trap' of modern DeFi" while also achieving "CEX-level performance" by using zero-knowledge encryption and a "Stealth Address Mechanism."

This includes supporting 50ms block times, 100,000 transactions per second, and zero gas costs, according to the announcement, putting it in line with some of the leading scalable blockchains tracked by data sources like Chainspect.

Solana, for reference, boasts 65,000 tx/s and 0.39-second blocktimes, according to Chainspect.

Moreover, similar to privacy chains like the ZK-powered Zcash, Aster Chain's transactions will settle and remain verifiable onchain while maintaining optional secrecy with its Account Privacy feature enabled by default.

"Transparency between a protocol and its users is a fundamental feature, but transparency between a trader and their competitors is a critical vulnerability," Aster CEO Leonard said in a statement. "Aster Chain is the only architecture that treats privacy as a fundamental requirement for a fair market, neutralizing predatory attacks at the base layer."

Although onchain perps trading has fallen off from a peak set toward the end of last year, Aster remains one of the most used perps DEXes, with similar volume to rival platforms Lighter and EdgeX, according to The Block’s data.

Hyperliquid, the largest onchain perps DEX, has seen a boom in oil-linked perps trading volume amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

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The ASTER token rallied as much as 8% following the mainnet launch announcement, and is currently trading at $0.76, up over 5% on the day, according to The Block's data.

With Aster Chain’s privacy features, traders will now be able to route transactions through a one-time stealth address, meaning “there's no way to link” a user’s wallet to their trades.

"No one can trace, correlate, or reconstruct your trading behavior," the team wrote.

The chain also introduced a "viewer pass" mechanism that can be shared to allow others to decrypt these onchain transactions. Aster has long emphasised multi-chain support alongside native integrations with Binance’s BNB Chain.

Beginning with its genesis block on Tuesday, the Aster team is rolling out new features and partnerships in phases, including public staking for ASTER token holders later this week and a future Aster Code partners program. 

At launch, the Aster Chain is said to support cross-chain deposits between the EVM-powered BNB Chain, Arbitrum, and Ethereum networks, as well as Solana.