March 17, 2026 – George Town, British Virgin Islands
Aster, a privacy-focused trading ecosystem backed by YZi Labs, today announced the official launch of Aster Chain mainnet.
This purpose-built layer-one blockchain is designed to dismantle the ‘transparency trap’ of modern DeFi, offering institutional-grade privacy and CEX-level performance to professional and retail traders worldwide.
Ending the era of onchain position hunting
Transparency is a defining characteristic of DeFi (decentralized finance), supported by public ledgers, verifiable transactions and open protocols.
However, transparency between protocols and users differs from transparency among market participants.
When trading activity, including order placement, position size and liquidation levels, is fully visible on-chain, such information may be observed and used by other participants in the market.
Position hunting where traders identify a large position, see its liquidation price and coordinate to trigger a forced liquidation has cost traders millions of dollars on fully transparent platforms.
Infamously, in March 2025, a trader opened a $375 million BTC 40x short on a fully transparent platform.
Traders quickly began openly coordinating on X to pool funds and hunt the position.
Aster’s default privacy removes that attack surface entirely.
The Aster thesis rivacy is a fundamental right
Unlike existing solutions that treat privacy as an opt-in feature or a third-party wrapper, Aster Chain embeds encryption directly into the execution layer.
On Aster, privacy is the default, not a privilege.
The Aster privacy stack utilizes a ZK-verifiable encrypted architecture.
- ZK-verifiable encryption and stealth address mechanism Every order is ZK-verifiable encrypted before it reaches the chain. With account privacy enabled, orders are routed through unique stealth addresses, ensuring no link between users’ wallets and their trading activity, and preventing any third party from tracing, correlating or reconstructing trades.
- Selective disclosure While asset transfers remain traceable for compliance, the execution layer shields strategic intent. Users who want their activity visible can choose to make it public. With account privacy enabled, users can generate a viewer pass to share with selected parties, allowing only those with access to the pass to view their private orders.
- Zero performance trade-off Aster Chain achieves peak throughput of over 100,000 TPS (transactions per second) and a median block time of 50ms, all without gas performance that matches the speed traders expect from a CEX (centralized exchange).
Leonard, CEO at Aster, said,
“Transparency between a protocol and its users is a fundamental feature, but transparency between a trader and their competitors is a critical vulnerability.
“Aster Chain is the only architecture that treats privacy as a fundamental requirement for a fair market, neutralizing predatory attacks at the base layer.”
CEX speed meets DEX principles
Aster Chain delivers the sub-second finality and high-leverage experience of a CEX while upholding the core tenets of decentralization self-custody, verifiability and permissionless access.
Trading privacy removes the last reason to stay on a centralized exchange.
The network is supported by a native bridge to BNB Chain and proprietary oracles to ensure high-fidelity price data.
Fueling the next wave of innovation
The mainnet launch marks the start of a phased expansion.
Beyond the flagship Aster trading UI, the ecosystem is inviting builders to create specialized vaults and collaborative DeFi products through Aster Code.
To coincide with the launch, Aster will initiate a staking program within a week to reward early supporters and liquidity providers.
About Aster
Aster is a privacy-first onchain trading platform backed by YZi Labs, with unique features like ‘hidden orders’ to protect user trading activity.
It offers perpetual contracts across crypto, stocks and commodities, as well as crypto spot trading and is powered by Aster Chain, a layer-one blockchain built to power the future of DeFi (decentralized finance).
Users can learn more about Aster on the official website or follow Aster on X.
Contact
Lola Chen, public relations and content manager for Aster
This content is sponsored and should be regarded as promotional material. Opinions and statements expressed herein are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of The Daily Hodl. The Daily Hodl is not a subsidiary of or owned by any ICOs, blockchain startups or companies that advertise on our platform. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in any ICOs, blockchain startups or cryptocurrencies. Please be advised that your investments are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility.
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