Aster CEO elaborates on Aster's vision for the privacy L1 chain, reshaping the Decentralization trading experience.

Original Title: Aster CEO Elaborates on Aster's Privacy L1 Chain Vision, Reshaping Decentralization Trading Experience

Original Author: Aster

Source:

Reprint: Mars Finance

The decentralized derivatives trading platform Aster will hold a community AMA event themed “Aster's Roadmap Unfolds: Milestones, Missions, And The Future” on November 10 at 1 PM UTC, simultaneously on Discord and X (formerly Twitter).

The event was hosted by Ember, the cooperation head of Aster, with Aster's CEO Leonard as the key guest. In a deep dialogue lasting an hour, Leonard not only reviewed the platform's recent milestone achievements but also focused on detailing the upcoming privacy-focused Layer 1 (L1) public chain plan to the global community. He engaged in candid and in-depth discussions with the community on core topics such as token empowerment, global market expansion, and liquidity strategy.

From functional innovation to market breakthrough

Leonard first reviewed Aster's technical iterations and market performance over the past few months. As a senior practitioner with a traditional finance background who has worked on building stock trading risk engines, Leonard emphasized Aster team's efficient execution in technology implementation.

He stated that Aster has recently successfully launched several core functions, including Hidden orders, New buyback system, Spot trading, and Stock & Index perps.

At the same time, the platform not only launched the “Rocket Launch” launchpad program but also initiated the fourth phase of the airdrop activity. Leonard stated, “Every step that Aster takes has been significantly reshaped by the voices of the community. We hope to give back value to our supporters through these tangible product deliveries.”

Build a privacy-driven high-performance L1 public chain

The highlight of this AMA is undoubtedly Leonard's in-depth elaboration on the vision of the Aster Layer 1 public chain. In response to the community's question about “why not continue to develop a pure DEX, but instead choose to develop an independent L1,” Leonard stated, “Our mission is to completely rebuild the experience of centralized exchanges (CEX) on-chain.”

Leonard stated that current general-purpose blockchains are not designed for the ultimate trading experience, and Aster needs a blockchain that can embed order book logic directly into the protocol layer. However, he also raised an industry pain point: is a fully transparent on-chain order book (like the Hyperliquid model) really the ultimate solution?

Leonard cited recent industry discussions about how the excessive transparency of Perp DEX leads to the failure of trading strategies and makes traders vulnerable to attacks, and revealed that Aster quickly launched a hidden order system just 10 days after these discussions took place. He emphasized: “Privacy is a fundamental right. For many professional traders and institutions, the ability to protect or not disclose their trading signals through a public order book is key to whether their strategies can be effective.”

The design philosophy of Aster L1 is similar to Zcash, aiming to address the pain points of institutional traders by combining a high-performance CLOB (Central Limit Order Book) blockchain with privacy options. The Aster public chain plans to complete internal testing by the end of this year and is expected to officially launch the mainnet in the first quarter of 2026.

Regarding the performance and economic model of L1, Leonard revealed that Aster L1 will provide TPS comparable to centralized databases, but the real killer feature lies in the differentiated value brought by the “privacy options”. In terms of the economic model, L1 will achieve nearly zero Gas fees and incentivize validators and stakers through ecosystem distribution and transaction fees generated by the protocol, building a self-sustaining economic closed loop.

Token Empowerment

Regarding the most concerned issue of token empowerment $ASTER in the community, Leonard provided a clear timeline and application scenarios during the AMA. He promised that in the next two quarters, the team will focus on the practical implementation of specific token utilities.

Currently, fee discounts, airdrop rights, and VIP levels have been launched. With the release of L1, Staking and Governance will become the core utilities of the token (15). Leonard explained in detail that the staking feature is expected to launch simultaneously with L1, where validators will maintain network security and earn rewards, while token holders can share rewards through delegated staking and participate in community governance.

In addition, to provide value even before the L1 launch, Aster is exploring collaborations with lending protocols (such as Lista and Venus) to create additional earnings for ASTER token holders through the “Trade & Earn” model. Leonard emphasized: “These utilities are independent of chain release and are designed to provide continuous value capture for long-term holders.”

Compete with CEX

When discussing liquidity and the introduction of institutional funds, Leonard demonstrated his macro perspective as a former traditional finance professional. He believes that Aster's competitors are not other Perp DEXs, but rather the still dominant centralized exchanges.

“Institutions are slow to adopt new technologies, and their primary concerns are capital safety and risk control. However, after the FTX incident, everyone has realized that 'self-custody' can fundamentally reduce counterparty risk,” Leonard analyzed. Aster provides a highly capital-efficient 'Trade & Earn' design (for example, supporting USDF as collateral), enabling institutions to achieve considerable incremental returns under large-scale capital operations.

Regarding liquidity building, Leonard stated that Aster has significantly improved the depth of major assets such as BTC, ETH, and SOL through its Market Maker Program. The next step will be to tilt the incentive mechanisms towards long-tail assets to enhance the trading experience of small cryptocurrencies and welcome more liquidity providers to join.

Ecological Expansion

Regarding global expansion, Leonard revealed in his response that Aster has established a solid foundation in the Asian market, with successful collaborations in the South Korean market providing a replicable model. Currently, the team is actively entering the Western European and North American markets by hosting offline events in New York with partners like BNB Chain, as well as recruiting local talents who are well-versed in local culture to build trading products that align with local user habits.

At the asset level, Aster has launched the “Rocket Launch” launchpad, specifically designed to provide liquidity support for early projects in the Pre-TGE phase; for Post-TGE projects, liquidity is guided through customized trading activities. Leonard emphasized: “We are not just a trading platform, but also discoverers and boosters of early high-quality assets.”

Q&A Session

In the final segment of the AMA, Leonard conducted a quick Q&A on the specific technical details that the community is concerned about:

Regarding the multi-asset margin model: Leonard clearly stated that the focus remains on USDT-denominated and multi-asset full collateral models. The inverse contracts (Coin/Inverse margin) are on the roadmap, but they will be launched after the current system is improved.

Regarding the exact timeline for L1: The team has set an aggressive goal to complete testnet preparations by the end of 2025 or early 2026, with the mainnet release window locked in for the first quarter of 2026.

Regarding the buyback and burn mechanism: Aster has currently implemented buybacks in the open market to ensure transparency. In the future, this mechanism will be migrated to Aster L1, where the size, price, and accounts of each transaction will be traceable on-chain, eliminating front-running risks and gradually evolving into a programmatic stabilization mechanism.