Aster Token Crashes 10% On DEX Integrity Issues Ahead of Airdrop, What’s Happening?

BNB-based decentralized exchange (DEX) Aster has come into the limelight recently, this time facing integrity issues over its perpetual trading volumes. DeFi aggregator and open source platform DeFiLlama pulled the plug earlier today after delisting Aster’s trading volume data. The ASTER token has tanked 10% in the last 24 hours, facing strong selling pressure recently. Interestingly, this development happens just ahead of the Phase 2 airdrop scheduled ahead this week on October 10.

DefiLlama Removes Aster TOKEN Perpetuals Data Amid Integrity Concerns

As the Aster decentralized exchange gears for the Phase 2 airdrop on October 10, the platform faces a major jolt. DefiLlama has announced plans to delist trading data for Aster’s perpetual contracts after identifying an “almost perfect correlation” between volumes reported by Aster and Binance. The similarity in trading activity raised concerns over the authenticity of Aster’s reported DEX trading volumes.

DefiLlama’s pseudonymous founder, 0xngmi, was the first to highlight concerns regarding Aster’s DeFi trading data. He has clearly shown evidence that Aster’s perpetual volume had recently started to closely mirror Binance’s activity.

He compared the trading for XRPUSD, on both Aster and its competitor, Hyperliquid. He noted that while Aster has a 1-1 correlation with Binance, Hyperliquid has clearly maintained some decoupling.

In the recent past, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao has praised the project amid its rapid growth. Last week, multiple ASTER tokens were transferred to Binance spot wallets shortly after CZ’s public endorsement of the project. Market observers believe that this move could indicate a testing phase ahead of a potential listing on the exchange.

ASTER Price Developments Recently

The development has pushed the ASTER token price lower, further by 10%, after losing the crucial support at $2.0. From the weekly high of $2.27 on October 4, the ASTER price is now down nearly 20%, eroding most of the gains.

Despite this development, whale activity around the ASTER token remains high. As per data on blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence, a large investor, identified by the wallet address 0xfE5A, purchased 1.69 million ASTER tokens valued at approximately $3.16 million earlier today.

The whale reportedly deposited 2.92 million USDT into the Aster platform before withdrawing 1.69 million ASTER tokens. This signals a significant accumulation move amid growing market attention on the token.