# Aster vs Aevo: 578 Contracts Against 102, and the Books Behind Them

Updated: 24 September 2026 — Tested: 22 September 2026 — Session Log staff

Aster vs Aevo sets the longest market list here against one of the shortest. One lists 578
perpetual contracts against 102 and held a median $14.9 million within
ten basis points against $1.3 million, while crossing costs $8.00 a round
trip against $16.00, the rate that keeps Aevo off the register. Leverage closes either
position on a small move.

## Weights and scoring range

Cost of a round trip 30 · Measured liquidity 30 · Custody and settlement 15 · Security record 15 · Market coverage 5 · Access 5. Scored out of 25, one formula for the whole site, fixed on 22 September 2026: https://coinlen.com/how-we-rate

## Aster vs Aevo, the whole sheet in one table

| Line | Aster | Aevo |
|---|---|---|
| Score of 25 | 18.6 | 11.6 |
| What it is | Matched and settled on Aster Chain, a network it launched itself | Matched off-chain, settled into contracts on its own optimistic rollup |
| Maker and taker at the entry tier | 0% maker / 0.040% taker on crypto perpetuals in order-book mode | 0.050% maker / 0.080% taker, with up to a fifth off for stakers |
| What a $10,000 taker round trip costs | $8.00 | $16.00 |
| Impact on orders of $10,000, $100,000 and $1 million | 0.09 bps, 0.37 bps, 1.03 bps | 2.48 bps, 4.06 bps, 7.37 bps |
| Perpetual contracts listed | 578 in order-book mode | 102, of which 55 are crypto |
| Documented BTC cap, and where the bracket ends | 200x to 400 USDT of notional, 100x to $800,000 | 20x, 5% margin, and a $10 million position cap |
| Open interest and 24-hour volume, as published by CoinMarketCap | $1.4 billion and $3.2 billion on 22 September 2026 | $12.8 million and $7.7 million on 22 September 2026 |

Venue pages read 18 September 2026 in each venue's own documentation and terms.

## Both books while we watched

Polled six times an hour until the log closed on 22 September 2026; medians of all successful snapshots.

| Venue | $10,000 round trip | Spread | Depth, 10 bps | Impact, $100,000 | Snapshots |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aster | $8.00 | 0.01 bps | $14.9 million | 0.37 bps | 128 |
| Aevo | $16.00 | 2.55 bps | $1.3 million | 4.06 bps | 127 |

## Quoted, word for word

> "Core chain contracts and RPC infrastructure will not be open-sourced at the moment" — Aster documentation, Aster Chain overview, 18 September 2026. https://docs.asterdex.com/aster-chain/overview

> "Conduit operates a sequencer for the Aevo Rollup that posts batches of transactions to Ethereum Mainnet every 1 hour." — Aevo documentation, layer 2 architecture, 18 September 2026. https://www.aevo.xyz/docs/aevo-products/aevo-exchange/technical-architecture/exchange-structure/layer-2-architecture

> "In addition, Aevo constantly and randomly selects some withdrawals for additional security checks." — Aevo documentation, withdrawals, 18 September 2026. https://www.aevo.xyz/docs/aevo-products/aevo-exchange/technical-architecture/withdrawals

## [Aster](https://www.asterdex.com) — the long list and the tight quote

18.6 of 25. Points before the weights, each out of ten: Cost of a round trip 7.0 · Measured liquidity 6.3 · Custody and settlement 7.0 · Security record 10.0 · Market coverage 10.0 · Access 8.0.

Aster matches and settles inside its own network, launched on 16 March 2026, and keeps the
book encrypted rather than displayed ([Aster documentation](https://docs.asterdex.com/overview/what-is-aster.md), checked 18 September 2026).
For a session that shows up as the tightest quote on the sheet: a median spread of
0.01 bps and $14.9 million resting within ten basis points across
128 readings, with a $1 million order moving 1.03 bps.
Crossing costs 0.040% at the entry tier, the maker side has been zero at every
volume tier since 2 February 2026, and it lists 578 perpetual contracts in
order-book mode. CoinMarketCap's derivatives ranking on 22 September 2026 carried
$1.4 billion of open interest and $3.2 billion over 24 hours.

- Works: Tightest median spread and the deeper book of the two, at 1.03 bps on a $1 million order; An Immunefi programme paying up to $200,000, behind seven published audit reports.
- Falls short: None of the seven audits covers Aster Chain or the engine that matches orders; Core chain contracts and node infrastructure are unpublished, and no outside validator may join in phase one; The terms reserve limited identity verification procedures and the right to restrict service without them.
- Not for: traders who want to read the code that holds the book before they fund an account.

## [Aevo](https://www.aevo.xyz/) — many instrument types on one margin account

11.6 of 25. Points before the weights, each out of ten: Cost of a round trip 3.0 · Measured liquidity 4.2 · Custody and settlement 7.0 · Security record 4.0 · Market coverage 8.5 · Access 8.0.

Aevo runs an off-chain order book and risk engine and settles matched trades into contracts on
its own optimistic rollup ([Aevo documentation](https://www.aevo.xyz/docs/readme), checked 18 September 2026). Its draw is
the account rather than
the book: 102 perpetual contracts sit beside dated and pre-launch contracts
under one margin balance, with USDC, USDT, ether and wrapped bitcoin all accepted as
collateral. The book itself was the thinner of this pair, a median $1.3 million within
ten basis points across 127 readings at 2.55 bps, and the
entry tier is 0.050% maker / 0.080% taker. CoinMarketCap listed $12.8 million of open interest and
$7.7 million of 24-hour volume on 22 September 2026.

- Works: Perpetual, dated and pre-launch contracts under one margin balance, with six accepted collateral assets; Twenty per cent off both sides of the schedule at the top staking tier.
- Falls short: The dearest crossing on this page at 0.080%, twice the other column; $1.3 million resting within ten basis points, and a $1 million order that found resting offers for 52.8% of its size; Legacy vaults run by the same team were drained of about $2.7 million in December 2025, with a haircut for the traders in them; No bug bounty found, and the five published audits are dated 2022 to 2024.
- Not for: an intraday trader who crosses the spread twenty times a day and counts the bill.

## Notes taken during the session

1. Breadth is not close: 578 perpetual contracts against 102, from each venue's own endpoint on 18 September 2026.
2. Neither is depth: a median $14.9 million resting within ten basis points against $1.3 million, on the same asset in the same minute.
3. Twenty $10,000 round trips cost $160.00 on one and $320.00 on the other, with $3.60 and $99.20 of slippage on top.
4. The gap is not all one way: none of Aster's seven audits covers the chain that matches its orders, and Aevo runs no bug bounty at all.
5. Only one of the two is on the register: it admits an entry tier of five basis points or less to cross, and 0.080% is eight.

## The longest list against one of the shortest

Counted from each venue's own public endpoint on 18 September 2026, one side of this page
lists 578 tradable perpetual contracts in order-book mode and the other
102. The shorter list is differently shaped rather than narrow: 55 of its
contracts are crypto and the rest run from equities and commodities to a market on the rental
price of an H100 accelerator. The longer one covers the same ground and several hundred more
crypto pairs behind it.

That gap is worth five points of a hundred here, and the weighting is deliberate: an intraday
session lives in a handful of pairs, and the fifth hundred of a market list holds contracts
nobody will quote. Breadth buys optionality the day a story moves a coin listed in one place and
not the other.

## Two bills, added up at three sizes

Crossing the spread costs 0.040% at the entry tier on one side and
0.080% on the other, so a $10,000 round trip is $8.00 against
$16.00 and twenty of them
$160.00 against
$320.00. The maker side has been zero at every
volume tier on one venue since 2 February 2026
([Aster VIP documentation](https://docs.asterdex.com/program-and-rewards/vip-program.md), checked 18 September 2026); the other charges
0.050% to post and takes up to a fifth off both sides for stakers.

That is what decides the register. This log ranks a venue when its entry tier takes five basis
points or less to cross, because a session of forty crossings carries the rate forty times;
0.080% is eight of them, so Aevo is read on this page and ranked on none.

Then the book charges its own bill. A $10,000 market order moved
0.09 bps above the mid on the deeper book and
2.48 bps on the thinner one, which is $0.09 of slippage against
$2.48, or $0.18 against $4.96 across two legs. The whole trip
therefore comes to $8.18 on one side and $20.96 on the other. At $100,000 it
is $87.40 against $241.20, and at $1 million, where the fee alone is
$800 and $1,600, the two fills add about $206 and about $1,474 on top.

None of that is fixed: it is what two books held through one session ending on
22 September 2026.

## Two chains, two ways of being a single operator

Both venues run their own chain and both are, at the level that matters, one operator. Aster
does both jobs inside Aster Chain, the proof-of-stake-authority network it launched on
16 March 2026, where orders are encrypted and proved rather than shown
([Aster documentation](https://docs.asterdex.com/overview/what-is-aster.md), checked 18 September 2026). Its own overview says the chain's
core contracts and its node infrastructure stay unpublished for now, and that outside
validators cannot join the first phase.

Aevo matches in an off-chain book with an off-chain risk engine and posts matched trades into
contracts on its own optimistic rollup, sequenced with Conduit and batched to Ethereum once an
hour ([Aevo documentation](https://www.aevo.xyz/docs/readme), checked 18 September 2026). Leaving costs 25 USDC or USDT to reach
Ethereum and about three hours.

The security line separates them further than the architecture does. Aster publishes seven
audit reports and an Immunefi programme paying up to $200,000, and repaid the traders whose
positions closed when one contract mispriced in September 2025. Aevo publishes five reports,
all dated 2022 to 2024 and none covering the engine that matches orders today, runs no bounty
we could find, and saw its team's legacy vaults drained of about $2.7 million in December 2025.

## FAQ

### Aster or Aevo for day trading?

Aster, on everything an intraday session touches. It takes 18.6 of
25 against 11.6, crosses at 0.040% against
0.080%, and held $14.9 million within ten basis points against
$1.3 million. Aevo is built around holding several instrument types in one account, not
around a fast book.

### How much cheaper is one than the other?

A $10,000 taker round trip costs $8.00 against $16.00, so twenty
a day is $160.00 against
$320.00. Slippage widens it: $0.18 against
$4.96 per trip at that size on the books we read. Staking takes up to a fifth off the dearer
schedule.

### How deep were the two Bitcoin books while you watched?

Medians within ten basis points of the mid were $14.9 million on one and
$1.3 million on the other, from 128 readings of one and
127 of the other, taken every
10 minutes in the session ending 22 September 2026. Spreads were 0.01 bps
and 2.55 bps. Depth on Bitcoin says nothing about the smaller markets on either
venue.

### Which one lists more than crypto?

Both. Aster lists share, currency, commodity, index and pre-IPO perpetuals beside its crypto
pairs, and Aevo's endpoint returns 32 equity, five commodity, four exchange-traded-fund, three
currency and two pre-IPO markets. EVEDEX covers the same classes in 52 contracts, far fewer
than either, and lists no spot market. CertiK Skynet recorded no bug bounty for it on
18 September 2026.

### Is Aster Chain open source?

Not at present. Its own overview says the chain's core contracts and its node
infrastructure will not be open-sourced for now, and that external validators cannot take part
in the first phase. Deposits cross its bridge on three of four validator signatures and
withdrawals on two of three, batched.

### What happened to the Ribbon vaults in December 2025?

Legacy vaults from the team's earlier product, kept live on Ethereum after the rebrand, were
drained of about $2.7 million on 12 December 2025 after an oracle upgrade let anyone set
expiry prices for new assets. The vaults were stopped and a 19 per cent haircut proposed. The
venue's own post has since been deleted.

### Does either one have a bug bounty?

One does. Aster runs an Immunefi programme paying up to $200,000, with critical reports worth
a tenth of the funds at risk and a $50,000 floor. No programme for Aevo appears in its
documentation index, and the security criterion here gives three of its ten points to a
published bounty, so Aevo loses them.

### What leverage does each one allow on Bitcoin?

Aster documents 200x in its order-book mode, but only to 400 USDT of notional, then 150x to
$300,000 and 100x to $800,000. Aevo documents 20x on Bitcoin, from a 5 per cent initial
margin, with a $10 million position cap. At either end the distance to liquidation is what
closes a position.

### Do they take the same collateral?

No. Aevo accepts six assets, USDC at full value, USDT at ninety-nine per cent and ether and wrapped bitcoin at
ninety per cent, converting the rest when a dollar balance goes negative. Aster settles in
USDT, and an account opened with an email address takes only USDT on Arbitrum, with no refund
for a deposit sent another way.

### Why did one of them lose its volume listing on DefiLlama?

DefiLlama removed Aster's perpetual volume from public trackers on 6 October 2025, saying it
could not verify figures that had begun to track a large centralised exchange almost one for
one. That account comes from a news report, not from either party, and no figure here rests
on it.

## How the session was run

Two venues, the six criteria this desk fixed on 22 September 2026 and applies on every page here
([how we rate](/how-we-rate)). Market counts, fee schedules, margin fractions, withdrawal terms,
restricted countries, audit records and incident reports come from each venue's own documentation,
terms and public endpoints, read on 18 September 2026; where a news report is the only account
of an incident, the page says so. Spread, depth and price impact are ours, from both BTC books
polled six times an hour until the log closed on 22 September 2026, medians of 128 readings on one and
127 on the other. The entries here were commissioned and paid for.

Aevo carries no place anywhere else on this site, so nothing here sets it against the seven on the
register. One session on one asset is a thin sample, and a market count says nothing about
which of those markets has a book worth crossing. Entry-tier fees ignore staking and token
discounts and volume tiers, which depend on a trader's own record, and they ignore funding,
charged for every hour a position stays open. The rest of the field is on the
[venue list](/crypto-day-trading-platform-list).

This site is paid placement. Both columns are scored with the published formula and nothing else, and every figure carries its date and its source. Corrections: editorial@coinlen.com.

Session Log staff, 24 September 2026

This site is paid placement.