Weekly Project Updates: Perp DEX Monthly Trading Volume Surpasses $1 Trillion, Aster Responds to Token Concentration Issue, Star Discusses X Layer Construction Blueprint, etc

Oct 04, 2025

1. Perp DEX’s Monthly Trading Volume Breaks Through $1 Trillion for the First Time, Reaching $1.143 Trillion link

According to data from DeFiLlama, in September, the monthly trading volume of Perp DEX exceeded $1 trillion for the first time in history, reaching $1.143 trillion, a month-on-month increase of nearly 50%. In the past 30 days, the protocols with Perp trading volume exceeding $100 billion are Aster, Hyperliquid, and Lighter respectively.

2. Aster Responds to Token Concentration: 96% Are Locked or in Custody, with Only 10% in Circulation link

Aster CEO Leonard addressed the doubts about the concentration of token holdings in an interview with Mable, founder of Trends. He stated that approximately 96% of ASTER tokens on the chain are concentrated in a small number of addresses, among which about 80% are locked up on the chain and can be publicly monitored. Of this locked-up portion, around 40% are airdropped tokens on the chain, and some are assets in users’ spot deposit addresses within the platform. The actual circulating supply in the market is about 10%. He also pointed out that the share held by YZi Labs, the only private placement participant, comes from a part of the 5% allocation quota for the team, which is equity investment with no mandatory lock-up requirement. So far, no selling behavior has occurred, and he believes YZi Labs has no intention of cashing out.

3. Lighter Announces the Launch of Its Ethereum L2 Mainnet and Starts the Second — Season Points Program link

Lighter announced the official launch of its Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) public mainnet, concluding an 8-month private testing phase. The protocol supports low-cost and low-latency perpetual contract trading, and adopts a customized ZK circuit to realize verifiable matching and liquidation, aiming to provide on-chain performance at the level of high-frequency trading. The first-quarter points program has ended, and the second quarter starts today, which is expected to last until the end of 2025. The specific methods for the community to participate in points acquisition will be announced later.

4. Chainlink Collaborates with UBS to Advance the Tokenization of the $100 Trillion Fund Market Through Swift Workflows link

Chainlink has collaborated with UBS to advance the tokenization of the $100 trillion fund market through Swift workflows. In the pilot, Chainlink’s Runtime Environment (CRE) uses the ISO 20022 standard to process the subscription and redemption of tokenized funds, directly receiving Swift messages from UBS’ existing systems and triggering on-chain operations.

5. Star Talks About the X Layer Construction Blueprint: Advances in Three Stages and Has Prepared a $100 Million Fund to Support High — Quality Projects link

Star Xu, Founder and CEO of OKX, delivered a speech at an offline event for X Layer, stating that OKX regards building an open blockchain network as one of its top strategic priorities and plans to make X Layer a key infrastructure for OKX Wallet and the exchange. The development of X Layer is divided into three phases: the first phase involves onboarding stablecoin projects such as Tether and USDG; the second phase focuses on collaborating with entities like Aave, Uniswap, Balancer, and Chainlink to integrate them into the infrastructure; the third phase aims to reward outstanding projects through incentive programs. Star noted that OKX has prepared a $100 million “OKX Vision Fund” and will support high-quality projects through multiple rounds of initiatives.

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6. Plasma Clarifies XPL — Related Rumors: Denies That the Team Is ex — Blast and Has Not Cooperated with Wintermute link

Paul, co-founder of Plasma, clarified rumors related to XPL, emphasizing that all XPL held by the team and investors are locked up for 3 years (with a 1-year cliff), and no team member has sold any; among the current team of approximately 50 people, only 3 have previously worked at Blur or Blast, while the other members are from companies such as Google, Facebook, Square, Temasek, and Goldman Sachs. He stated that simply categorizing the team as “ex-Blast” is inaccurate; in addition, Plasma has not collaborated with Wintermute on market making, nor has it signed any service contracts. Its knowledge of Wintermute’s XPL holdings is the same as that of the public.

7. Starknet Launches Bitcoin Staking and Invests 100 Million STRK to Incentivize the Ecosystem link

Starknet, an Ethereum Layer 2 network, has officially launched the Bitcoin staking feature. Users can participate in transaction validation by delegating BTC and receive STRK rewards. The Starknet Foundation will invest 100 million STRK to incentivize related activities, and London-based investment firm RE7 has already developed Bitcoin-denominated yield products on it.

8. Injective Announces the Launch of an On — Chain Pre — IPO Perpetual Contract Market link

Injective announced the launch of an on-chain Pre-IPO perpetual contract market. Users can trade contracts of unlisted companies, including OpenAI, on Injective applications such as Helix, with leverage support. This product is backed by data from Seda Protocol and Caplight Data, and features programmability, composability, leverage, and capital efficiency. It aims to bring the approximately $2 trillion Pre-IPO market onto the chain. Injective stated that it will launch more company-related contracts in succession in October.

9. Moonbirds Will Launch the birb Token on Solana link

The NFT project Moonbirds posted on the X platform stating that it will launch the birb token on Solana. Currently, the official has not released any Contract Address (CA), so please stay safe and do not click on any links. According to OpenSea market data, affected by the token launch news, the floor price of Moonbirds NFT has risen to 4 ETH, with a 24-hour increase of 16.1%.

10. PunkStrategy Token PNKSTR Breaks Through $160 Million 25 Days After Its Launch link

On Ethereum, the PunkStrategy token PNKSTR surpassed a market capitalization of $160 million within 25 days of its launch. Among its holders, the top address (0x4a…70ee) now has an unrealized profit of $3.6 million. This address currently holds 2.52% of the total PNKSTR supply, with an average purchase price of $0.00837. Notably, Arkham has labeled this top PNKSTR address (0x4a…70ee) as “suspected to be MetaStreet Labs”. MetaStreet Labs is a liquidity protocol for the NFT credit market, which has raised a total of $49 million in funding, with investments from Dragonfly, AllianceDAO, and other institutions.

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