VOLUMES ASTER DEX MIMIC BINANCE, RAISING WASH TRADING QUESTIONS

Summary from the TLDR Crypto newsletter

DefiLlama delisted Aster's perpetuals data after founder 0xngmi discovered XRP trading volumes that mirrored Binance almost tick-for-tick with a near-perfect 1:1 correlation ratio, suggesting possible wash trading or data manipulation since organic decentralized order flow typically diverges from centralized exchanges. Aster had rapidly risen to the top of DefiLlama's leaderboard for daily fees and volume across perpetual DEXs, briefly overtaking Hyperliquid, while its ASTER token surged from 9 cents to over $2 in under three weeks for returns exceeding 1,500% among the best-performing tokens in recent months. The controversy intensified due to timing coincidences, as Binance announced ASTER listing with a "Seed Tag" on the same day as the delisting, with Binance co-founder CZ Zhao serving as an Aster advisor and vocal proponent on social media. While Aster showed a "low" score in one wash trading risk model, the suspicious volume correlation raised sufficient red flags for delisting, contrasting with Hyperliquid's looser 0.59 correlation with Binance that allowed it to maintain its metrics despite a "medium" wash trading score.