The strongest Aster alternatives in our 24 September 2026 scores are Lighter (8.5/10), with 0% fees
on its default account and a documented exit through Ethereum, and Extended (7.8). Aster itself
scores 7.7: 578 markets and a bug bounty, but a closed-source chain with no outside
validators. Its bug bounty pays up to $200,000.
What the numbers say
01Lower fees than Aster's 0.040% taker rate: Lighter at 0% and Extended at 0.025%.
02Documented exit without the operator: Lighter, edgeX and ApeX Omni. Aster documents none.
03Commodities, currencies and pre-IPO contracts beside crypto: EVEDEX, Lighter and Extended.
04Bug bounties: Aster publishes one up to $200,000, Lighter publishes none at all.
WeightsTrading cost25Liquidity25Custody and settlement20Security record15Market coverage10Access5how we rate
Aster alternatives ranked, September 2026
Order-book venues a trader leaving or comparing Aster can move to, ordered by the overall score. Each row
answers one question: what this venue does that Aster does not.
Entry-tier fees on the BTC perpetual; market counts as each venue's own interface reports them. Equal totals hold the same rank. Availability is decided by each venue's terms, not by this desk. Facts as of 18 September 2026; Scores use one formula for the whole site, fixed on 18 September 2026.
Order-book readings
Every BTC perpetual book on this page was polled on a ten-minute tick, 18 September 2026 12:02 UTC to 19 September 2026 09:10 UTC. The figures are medians of all successful snapshots, and the last column is how many snapshots stand behind each row.
Venue
$10,000 round trip, taker
Median spread
Median depth, 10 bps
Depth scale
Impact, $100,000 order
Snapshots
Aster
$8.00
0.01 bps
$16.1 million
0.38 bps
113
Lighter
$0.00
0.01 bps
$16.9 million
0.60 bps
114
Extended
$5.00
0.12 bps
$7.4 million
0.06 bps
114
edgeX
$9.00
0.04 bps
$29.5 million
0.02 bps
109
Hyperliquid
$9.00
0.12 bps
$9.6 million
0.06 bps
114
ApeX Omni
$10.00
0.71 bps
$1.8 million
0.38 bps
114
EVEDEX
$9.00
4.12 bps
$18.3 million
2.06 bps
111
Spread and depth are read straight from each venue's public order-book endpoint; price impact is what a market order of that size would pay against the book as it stood. No accounts were opened and no orders were placed.
Criterion scores before the weights, each out of ten
Trading costLiquidityCustody and settlementSecurity recordMarket coverageAccess
Lighter matches trades in an operator-run sequencer and proves every batch on Ethereum
(Lighter docs, checked 18 September 2026). Its default account pays 0% maker and taker fees in exchange for 300 ms of
taker latency. It lists 214 perpetual markets, including currencies, equities and pre-IPO
contracts, documents a forced exit through Ethereum and allows 50x on BTC.
Reads well
0% fees on the default account
Forced exit through Ethereum documented
Reads badly
300 ms of taker latency on free accounts
No public bug bounty programme
Not for: traders who want a published bug bounty behind the venue.
Criterion scores before the weights, each out of ten
Trading costLiquidityCustody and settlementSecurity recordMarket coverageAccess
Extended settles every transaction on Starknet (Extended docs, checked 18 September 2026) and charges
0% maker / 0.025% taker to every account, against 0% maker / 0.040% taker on Aster. It lists
325 markets, though 278 are request-for-quote without a public book. BTC goes to 50x, and its
bug bounty pays up to $500,000.
Reads well
0.025% taker fee for every account
Bug bounty of up to $500,000
Reads badly
Most markets have no public order book
No documented forced withdrawal
Not for: traders who cannot wait up to four hours on a large withdrawal.
Criterion scores before the weights, each out of ten
Trading costLiquidityCustody and settlementSecurity recordMarket coverageAccess
edgeX batches every state change into rollup contracts on its EDGE chain (edgeX docs, checked 18 September 2026) and
documents withdrawals that bypass the operator. In the snapshots its BTC book held a median $29.5 million
within 10 bps, against $16.1 million on Aster. Entry fees are 0.040% maker / 0.045% taker; BTC goes to 100x on
positions up to $1 million.
Reads well
Median BTC depth of $29.5 million within 10 bps
Documented exit without the operator
Reads badly
0.040% maker fee at the entry tier
No bug bounty programme
Not for: makers who need low fees on resting orders.
Criterion scores before the weights, each out of ten
Trading costLiquidityCustody and settlementSecurity recordMarket coverageAccess
ApeX Omni proves matched trades on the zkLink rollup, with a documented forced withdrawal to layer 1
(ApeX Omni docs, checked 18 September 2026). Entry fees are 0.020% maker / 0.050% taker. It lists 125
markets and accepts wallet or email sign-in. The audits it publishes cover zkLink's infrastructure
from 2023 rather than its own matching engine.
Criterion scores before the weights, each out of ten
Trading costLiquidityCustody and settlementSecurity recordMarket coverageAccess
Hyperliquid runs its order books inside its own layer-1 consensus (Hyperliquid docs, checked 18 September 2026), with
324 perpetual markets and both cross and isolated margin. Fees start at
0.015% maker / 0.045% taker, a higher taker rate than Aster's 0.040%. Its bug bounty pays up to
1 million USDC, and BTC goes to 40x.
Criterion scores before the weights, each out of ten
Trading costLiquidityCustody and settlementSecurity recordMarket coverageAccess
EVEDEX matches off-chain and records positions and withdrawals on Arbitrum (EVEDEX documentation as of 18 September 2026).
Its 52 markets include Tether Gold, oil, currencies, stocks and pre-IPO contracts, and its BTC
book held a median $18.3 million within 10 bps in the snapshots. Fees are 0.015% maker / 0.045% taker; 200x
applies to BTC, ETH and SOL positions up to $50,000.
Reads well
Median BTC depth of $18.3 million within 10 bps
Commodities and pre-IPO contracts on one account
Reads badly
Position snapshots and no documented exit
No bug bounty programme
Not for: traders who need hundreds of altcoin markets.
Why traders compare Aster alternatives
Aster moved matching and settlement to Aster Chain, its own layer 1, on 16 March 2026. In this first phase
the chain takes no outside validators and its core code is closed-source (Aster docs, checked 18 September 2026).
Its separate 1001x mode was discontinued, with remaining positions force-closed. In October 2025 DefiLlama
pulled Aster's perpetuals data after its XRP volumes mirrored Binance's almost tick for tick
(CoinDesk);
on 24 September 2026 Aster appears again in DefiLlama's open-interest ranking.
Aster has real strengths: 578 perpetual markets, a 0% maker fee since 2 February 2026 and an
Immunefi bug bounty of up to $200,000. Its BTC book held a median $16.1 million within 10 bps in the
snapshots. The alternatives below run order books too, so the comparison is like for like.
Leverage shortens the distance between the entry price and the liquidation price, and the whole margin sits inside that distance.
How the readings were taken
Two kinds of number reach this screen. Depth, spread and price impact are ours — every BTC perpetual
book polled on a ten-minute tick, 18 September 2026 12:02 UTC to 19 September 2026 09:10 UTC, no account opened and no order sent, each median printed with
the count of readings behind it. The rest is read off each venue's own documentation and trading terms
on 18 September 2026: rate cards, market lists, leverage ladders, sign-in and access rules, audit
history. Six weighted criteria, fixed on 18 September 2026 and unmoved since, turn those readings into the
6 totals on this page (How we rate). Aster is scored with the same formula at 7.7/10 and shown in the
measurement table for comparison.
Custody, settlement and the security record are marked off documents, and a document is a statement of
intent — none of it has been put under stress here. The fee column is the entry-tier rate a new account
is quoted, with volume tiers, rebates and cashback left out of it. Depth was read on the BTC book
alone, the deepest contract every one of these venues runs, so a venue that reads well on this screen
can still be thin in a smaller market. Venues priced from an oracle or a pool never had a resting book
to read, and carry their facts without a total on the perp DEX list.
FAQ
What is the best decentralised exchange?
For perpetual futures on an order book, Lighter leads our 24 September 2026 scores at 8.5/10, on
0% default fees, a documented exit and nine audits. For spot swaps, pool-based DEXs such as Uniswap are a
different product that we do not score.
What are the top 5 dex?
In the CoinMarketCap ranking of derivatives DEXs on 22 September 2026, the five largest by reported open interest were Hyperliquid ($8.7 billion), Aster ($1.4 billion), Variational ($746.9 million), EVEDEX ($704.9 million) and edgeX ($635.5 million). Open interest shows size, not fees, custody or execution quality.
What are the best self custodial, no kyc perp dex please?
Every venue on this page trades from a wallet without identity documents. For custody, Lighter, edgeX and
ApeX Omni document withdrawals that work without the operator, which is what self-custody means on a bad day.
Lighter scores highest overall at 8.5/10.
Is there any Dex to trade legit cryptocurrencies?
Yes. Every alternative here lists perpetual contracts on BTC, ETH and SOL as well as smaller tokens; Lighter
has 214 markets and Extended 325. These are futures contracts, so you
trade the price without holding the coin, and leverage can liquidate a position.
What apps/ dexs you guys use to trade futures?
We rate venues rather than trade on them. On our 24 September 2026 scores, Lighter, Extended and edgeX lead the
order-book group; EVEDEX stands out for commodity and pre-IPO contracts. Read each venue's card and its own
terms first, because most of these venues exclude several countries.
Which DEX is best for perps?
It depends on the trade. Lighter leads on cost and custody at 8.5/10, edgeX showed the
deepest BTC book among the venues here at $29.5 million within 10 bps, and Hyperliquid offers isolated
margin on 324 markets. EVEDEX adds gold, oil and pre-IPO contracts to crypto.
cex futures vs perp dexes, what are the real tradeoffs?
You trade some depth and fiat access for custody. Binance's BTC book held a median $26.8 million
within 10 bps in the snapshots, against $16.9 million on Lighter. In return, a perp DEX keeps collateral
in contracts and asks for no identity documents.
Spaces Research — Updated: — write to editorial@spacesdao.org