Aster has activated AOS-2, requiring projects to stake 1 million ASTER for four years before validators can approve a new perpetual market.
Summary
- Applicants must stake 1 million ASTER for four years, with no early withdrawal option.
- Successful proposals will move to Aster’s risk team before the contract launches on T+1.
- Projects that fail the validator vote will receive their full ASTER stake back.
- AOS-3 will follow, although Aster has not disclosed its rules or launch date.
AOS-2 opens Aster perpetual listings to applicants
Aster said in an Aug. 11 X post that the standard replaces private listing talks with a public process built around token staking, validator votes, and on-chain records.
Under AOS-2, a project must first meet Aster’s eligibility conditions and stake 1 million ASTER before it can submit a perpetual market proposal. The tokens remain locked for four years, and the applicant cannot leave the program early once the lock begins.
Eligible proposals then move to an on-chain validator vote. Approval does not immediately activate trading because Aster’s risk-control team must first configure the contract and assign the market’s operating parameters.
Once that process is complete, Aster plans to list the perpetual contract on T+1, meaning the next day after the required market setup. The announcement does not state whether T+1 refers to a calendar day or a business day.
A rejected application does not lose its deposit. According to the AOS-2 rules, Aster will return the full 1 million ASTER stake if validators vote against the listing. The announcement does not say how long the voting period lasts, what share of validator support is needed, or when the returned tokens become available.
The four-year lock therefore applies to successful applicants rather than serving as a listing fee. Aster did not disclose whether the locked tokens earn staking rewards, carry governance rights beyond the listing vote, or become subject to penalties if a listed project later fails to meet platform rules.
Aster keeps control of leverage and market risk
Although validators decide whether a proposed market can proceed, Aster’s risk-control system retains authority over leverage and other contract settings. The platform said those rules will be public and each decision will be recorded on-chain.
Risk settings are central to a perpetual contract because traders can maintain leveraged long or short positions without an expiration date. The exchange must set parameters covering margin requirements, liquidation levels, and the amount of leverage available, although Aster’s announcement did not list the exact factors its team will use.
The model divides responsibility between validators and the platform. Token holders participating in validation decide whether an eligible market should receive approval, while Aster determines how the contract will operate once it reaches the listing stage.
AOS-2 follows AOS-1, which opened spot-token listings to projects meeting published conditions. The latest standard applies the same public-entry approach to perpetual contracts, a market where Aster said listings have traditionally depended on private negotiations between projects and exchanges.
Aster has already used direct partnerships to add perpetual markets. In April, crypto.news reported its GENIUS listing, which made the exchange the first decentralized venue to offer a GENIUS perpetual contract.
The April arrangement also included a $200,000 ASTER trading reward pool and followed Aster’s partnership with the Genius trading platform. Under AOS-2, eligible projects now have a stated route to apply without depending solely on a privately arranged partnership.
AOS-2 gives ASTER another staking function
Requiring 1 million ASTER for every application adds a new use for the platform’s native token. The size of the requirement also means the cost of applying will change with ASTER’s market price, even though the number of tokens remains fixed.
Aster has not stated whether applicants may delegate the stake, obtain the tokens through third parties or submit a joint application. Its Aug. 11 announcement also did not disclose whether multiple proposals from the same organization would each require a separate 1 million-token lock.
The requirement arrives after Aster connected ASTER more closely to platform revenue. On June 17, the protocol said it would use 99% of daily fees for open-market token purchases and remove an equal amount from its reserves.
As previously covered on crypto.news, Aster also planned to reduce total supply from 8 billion to 3 billion ASTER through reserve burns. Purchased tokens were assigned to its Loyalty Rewards program, where distribution goes to veASTER holders according to their lock-weighted participation.
Aster separately imposed a 50,000 USDT charge for permissionless spot listings, with the proceeds directed toward ASTER purchases and rewards for stakers. AOS-2 uses a different structure because the perpetual-market deposit is returned when validators reject a proposal and remains locked when the application succeeds.
The staking rule comes as decentralized perpetual exchanges take a larger share of derivatives activity. CoinGecko’s 2026 Crypto Perpetuals Report found that perp DEXs increased their share of open interest from 3.6% in early 2025 to 13.5% in early 2026, according to coverage published in May.
CoinGecko also reported that top perp DEX open interest rose from $1.19 billion at the start of 2024 to $14.99 billion by the end of January 2026. Centralized exchanges still controlled most activity, with Binance and OKX accounting for 33% and 15% of the market during the first four months of 2026.
U.S. users face separate derivatives rules
AOS-2 changes how markets reach Aster, but it does not, by itself, decide who may legally trade the resulting contracts. Access for U.S. residents depends on federal derivatives rules and the platform’s geographic restrictions.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulates U.S. commodity futures, options, and swaps through registered entities, including designated contract markets and derivatives clearing organizations. The agency has also brought cases against offshore platforms accused of offering leveraged crypto derivatives to U.S. customers without registration.
In May 2026, the CFTC approved a Bitcoin perpetual futures contract for listing on a registered U.S. exchange and issued staff advisories covering continuous trading, clearing, and settlement, according to an updated CFTC regulation guide. The agency’s action concerned a regulated domestic product and did not provide general approval for U.S. customers to use offshore perpetual platforms.
Aster’s Aug. 11 announcement did not address U.S. availability, registration with the CFTC, or country-level access rules for markets approved through AOS-2. It also did not identify the assets that may qualify, publish an initial list of applicants, or disclose when the first validator vote will begin.
Aster said AOS-3 will follow AOS-2, but the exchange has not announced what the next standard will cover or when its rules will take effect.
