Decentralized cryptocurrency exchange (DEX) Aster and perpetual futures platform announced on Thursday that its Layer 1 blockchain testnet is now available to all users, with a potential rollout of Aster’s Layer 1 mainnet in the first quarter of 2026.
According to Aster, several up-to-date features are scheduled to launch in the first quarter, including fiat on-ramps, Aster code release for builders, and the upcoming L1 mainnet. action plan.
According to the roadmap, Aster will focus on infrastructure, token utility and building its ecosystem and community in 2026.
In March 2025, Aster changed its name to perpetual futures DEX and is a direct competitor to Hyperliquid perpetual futures DEX, which also operates on its own application-specific Layer 1 blockchain network.
The launch of a dedicated Layer 1 chain for Aster reflects the trend of Web3 projects moving towards bespoke blockchains to support high-throughput transaction volumes, rather than relying on general-purpose blockchains such as Ethereum or Solana that support mixed traffic.
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2025 was the year when DEX perp gained momentum
The success of Hyperliquid, a perpetual decentralized exchange (perp DEX), has helped generate interest in other perpetual DEXs such as Aster.
Time-honored futures contracts have an expiration date and must be manually rolled over, while perpetual futures contracts have no expiration date.
Instead, investors pay a funding rate to keep their positions open indefinitely, allowing the markets to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Perp DEX’s total trading volume almost tripled in 2025, rising from around $4 trillion to over $12 trillion by the end of the year.
According to DefiLlama data, approximately $7.9 trillion of this cumulative trading volume was generated in 2025.
Monthly trading volume on perpetual exchanges reached the $1 trillion milestone in October, November and December, according to DefiLlama data.
The surge in trading volumes in 2025 signals growing investor interest and demand for cryptocurrency products and platforms as more of the world’s financial transactions take place online.
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