The issue arose when a misconfigured index, hard-coded at $1, allowed the mark price cap to be lifted prematurely. That triggered XPL futures to surge to nearly $4, even as trading on other venues remained in the $1.30 range. The price divergence led to forced liquidations of leveraged positions and left traders exposed to steep losses. Aster’s team swiftly paused trading on the affected market, initiated a review, and deployed compensation. The company stated all impacted accounts received reimbursements in USDT within hours.
The glitch has raised concerns over the fragility of configuration controls in decentralised derivatives platforms. Observers noted that a single oversight in index management or price cap logic can cascade into widespread disruption when leveraged positions amplify price distortions. Some community voices warned that user confidence could drift if such errors repeat.
Despite the disruption, Aster’s volume metrics remain strong. The platform registered more than $100 billion in derivatives trading volume on Friday, marking a new daily high and surpassing rivals such as Hyperliquid. Aster’s fee generation also surged, reportedly reaching $16.3 million in one day—more than three times that of Hyperliquid’s comparative performance.
Aster’s growth trajectory has attracted scrutiny of underlying token dynamics. The ASTER token, launched on September 17 via the merger of Astherus and APX Finance, has seen explosive gains—over 1,700 %, according to on-chain data. But critics point to extreme supply concentration: the top six wallets control upwards of 92–93 % of the circulating token supply. That raises the spectre of large sell-offs and questions about distribution fairness.
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Cryptocurrency