Aster is up to something - they are not satisfied with being a DEX and have decided to build their own privacy L1 public chain.

CEO Leonard candidly stated in a recent AMA that the fully transparent order book of current DEXs (such as Hyperliquid) is not the ultimate solution. Institutional traders and large investors fear the leakage of trading signals, which directly impacts the effectiveness of their strategies. Therefore, Aster's L1 design philosophy draws inspiration from Zcash, with the core selling point being **privacy options**—combining CLOB with privacy.

The schedule is here: the testnet will be completed by the end of the year, and the mainnet will officially launch in Q1 2026. In terms of performance, it can achieve TPS comparable to centralized databases, with gas fees almost at 0.

The Token side is also taking action—there are now fee discounts and airdrop privileges. After the L1 launch, staking and governance will be the main dishes. Leonard is also trying to collaborate with lending protocols (Lista, Venus) to provide additional benefits to ASTER token holders.

Interestingly, Leonard has locked Aster's competitors on CEX rather than other Perp DEX. After analyzing the FTX incident, institutions are increasingly caring about self-custody, and Aster's high capital-efficient design (such as supporting USDF as collateral) can provide significant additional returns for large funds. This is about capturing the cake of CEX.

The Asian market has already established a solid foundation, and Korea has successfully replicated it. Now we are pushing into Europe and the United States—offline events in New York are already being planned. The asset layer has also launched the "Rocket Launch" launchpad to support early projects.

The logic of this move is very clear: using privacy + high performance to attract institutions from CEX, while binding the community through the token and the self-sustaining economic cycle of L1. The key focus for the next quarter will be whether the token utility can truly materialize.