Aster Overtakes Hyperliquid in $29.5 Billion Trading Surge

Hi! In today’s edition:

• 🚀 Aster flips Hyperliquid in perpetual trading

• 💵 New USDH stablecoin dethrones USDC on launch day

• 🏛️ Warren, Slotkin demand WLFI probe over Trump ties

• 🎙️ DATs face hedge fund threats in next bear cycle

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Aster Flips Hyperliquid in Perpetual Trading Volume 

Decentralized exchange Aster has surpassed rival Hyperliquid in daily perpetual trading volume. 

Aster topped the charts for 24-hour perpetual trading volume with $29.5 billion, surpassing Hyperliquid's $10 billion on the same day, as per data from DeFiLlama. 

Aster's open interest also surged nearly 600% in less than a week, jumping from $142.7 million on Friday to $1.03 billion on Wednesday, according to data from CoinGlass. 

However, Hyperliquid’s open interest still sits higher at $2.17 billion, and has deeper liquidity over a longer period with $299 billion in 30-day perpetual volume compared with Aster’s $48 billion.

Aster’s rise comes after being promoted by Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who is also one of the largest holders of Aster’s native token ASTER. Aster is backed by YZi Labs, the family office run by Zhao and Binance co-founder Yi He.

Some users argue that Aster’s claims of being a DEX are entirely false given that its documentation does not specify any information on the underlying custom technology layer.

“Unlike Hyperliquid, Aster has no validators, consensus, blocks, explorers, or anything related to the blockchain tech. they claim to be a DEX, but that’s misleading,” said HYPE investor altoshi on X.

“Usage of smart contracts is only limited to deposits to their CEX. execution doesn’t rely on smart contracts or decentralized infrastructure AT ALL.”

USDH Surpasses USDC on Hyperliquid Hours After Launch

Hyperliquid’s new stablecoin USDH launched on Wednesday, drawing in close to $2 million in early trading volume.

Around nine hours after being deployed on HyperEVM, USDH had also surpassed Circle’s stablecoin USDC’s market share. A Dune dashboard created by @kambenbrik shows that USDH is currently the third largest stablecoin on HyperEVM with an 8.9% market share and over $24 million in circulation. 

Data from Allium’s USDH dashboard shows that the average USDH balance sits at around $425,000 across 57 active addresses. The top two USDH holders had a balance of over $10 million.

USDH’s launch comes after a hotly contested battle for the stablecoin’s issuance rights, with new startup Native Markets eventually emerging ahead of competitors like Paxos and Sky.

Native Markets’ team includes early Hyperliquid ecosystem investor Max Fiege, former Uniswap Labs president Mary-Catherine Lader, and blockchain researcher Anish Agnihotri.

Tune in! 3 back-to-back interviews streaming LIVE today at 12:00pm ET!

Figment’s James Parillo joins Laura to chat about PumpFun going mainstream; Solana Foundation’s Lily Liu discusses app revenue; and former Coinbase Ventures investor Ryan Yi discusses Unchained’s Onchain5 with executive editor Steve Ehrlich. 

Watch on X or YouTube!

Senators Warren and Slotkin Call for Probe Into Trump Administration’s WLFI Deal

Two Democratic senators, Elizabeth Warren and Elissa Slotkin, have formally called for an ethics investigation into potential violations by the Trump administration’s crypto dealings.

Concerns center on two interconnected deals announced in May. One of them is the administration allowing the UAE to import American-designed AI chips, and another where a UAE government-backed firm invested $2 billion into World Liberty Financial, co-founded by Trump and his family along with advisor Steve Witkoff.

Witkoff, who moved from the State Department to a White House role this year, advocated for the chip exports while his family’s firm secured the crypto investment.

White House adviser on AI and crypto David Sacks is also implicated for participating in chip deal talks despite conflict of interest worries.

“The pattern of these transactions is deeply troubling and reveals that Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Sacks were in positions to control government decisions to personally enrich themselves even as they created significant national security concerns,” wrote the senators in a letter to the inspectors general of the Commerce and State Departments.

The White House has stated Witkoff is divesting from his holdings and that Sacks has no financial interest in the chip deal, having received an ethics waiver.

How the Next Crypto Winter Could Trigger a DAT Meltdown

Digital Asset Treasuries (DATs), companies whose sole purpose is to buy crypto tokens, have exploded in popularity. But are they structurally sound? We are about to find out.

In this segment from the Bits + Bips podcast, Vinny Lingham, Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia and Steven Ehrlich break down why many DATs may be vulnerable to activist hedge fund strategies — especially in a downturn.

They reveal how:

• Some DATs are already trading at big discounts to NAV

• Hedge funds may exploit those gaps through shorting, buyouts, and liquidations

• Only a handful of high-quality DATs may survive the next bear market

• 🏛️ The U.S. Senate will hold a hearing on Oct. 1 to review crypto tax policy, with executives from Coinbase, Coin Center, and others set to testify as lawmakers debate updates to outdated tax rules.

• 🤝 South Korean tech giant Naver is reportedly set to acquire crypto exchange Upbit through a stock swap that would fold parent company Dunamu into its financial division, sending Naver shares up over 7%.

• 📦 Crypto trading firm GSR filed to launch an ETF that bundles public companies holding crypto in their treasuries, aiming to institutionalize a trade where firms raised funds just to buy Bitcoin, Ether, or Solana.

• 🕵️‍♂️ North Korean hackers used a stolen developer key to create fake tokens and loot $1.2 million from Seedify’s blockchain bridge, causing its SFUND token to crash over 30% and drawing links to previous DPRK attacks.

• 💶 Nine major European banks, including ING and UniCredit, joined forces to launch a euro stablecoin regulated under the EU’s MiCA rules, aiming for a 2026 rollout and direct licensing from the Dutch Central Bank.

• 💳 RedotPay, a Hong Kong-based fintech offering stablecoin-powered cards and wallets, raised $47 million in fresh funding from backers including Coinbase Ventures, lifting its valuation above $1 billion after hitting $10 billion in annual volume.

• 💰 Coinbase led a $14.6 million investment in Bastion, a startup that helps companies create their own branded stablecoins without needing to build from scratch or get licenses themselves.

• ⚙️ BULK raised $8 million to build a next-gen decentralized exchange on Solana, claiming it can match orders faster than centralized rivals while still being censorship-resistant and fully on-chain.

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