Aster vs Deribit

Aster or Deribit: which to use

Aster vs Deribit is a decentralized exchange against a centralized one. On Aster you trade from your own wallet without ID, at 0 bp maker and 4 bp taker, with up to 300x leverage. Deribit requires ID, proof of address and a financial profile before any deposit, holds your funds in an account, and charges 1.5 bp maker and 3.5 bp taker, with up to 50x. As of 1 October 2026, Aster lists 588 perp markets against Deribit's 134. Custody, ID and market breadth decide it for most traders.

How each exchange is built

Aster is a decentralized exchange (DEX) on BNB Chain. You trade from a self-custody wallet. It matches orders on a central limit order book.

Deribit is a centralized exchange (CEX): you open an account with the company, and the account holds your funds. It also matches orders on a central limit order book.

For you the difference is custody. On Aster you trade from your own wallet. On Deribit you log in to an account and the company holds the balance.

Fees and what they mean

Aster's base tier is 0 bp maker and 4 bp taker, per Aster's fee page. Deribit's base tier is 1.5 bp maker and 3.5 bp taker, read from Deribit's API. Fees are in basis points: 1 bp is 0.01% of the position.

A market order pays the taker fee to open and again to close. That is 8 bp per round trip on Aster and 7 bp on Deribit. A limit order that rests on the book pays the maker fee instead: 0 bp on Aster and 1.5 bp on Deribit. If you trade mostly with limit orders, the maker rate matters more than the taker rate.

The fee is only part of a trade's cost. Slippage, the price you move by eating through the order book, grows with size. The cost table above adds the taker fee twice and the measured slippage at each size from $1k to $5M. Every exchange's trading cost is compared on one page.

Markets and leverage

As of 1 October 2026 Aster lists 588 active perps, 133 of them stocks, commodities, FX or other real-world assets. Deribit lists 134, 34 of them real-world assets.

Aster allows up to 300x and Deribit up to 50x on their highest-leverage markets. Most markets on both allow less, so check the limit of the market you trade.

Funding is the periodic payment between longs and shorts of a perp. A positive rate means longs pay shorts. Deribit pays funding every hour on every market. Aster pays every 1 hour, 4 hours or 8 hours depending on the market. An hourly market settles 24 times a day, an 8-hour market three times, so the interval changes how often a position pays or receives funding. The list further down this page shows the markets both exchanges have and each one's funding rate.

Who can use them

Aster asks for no ID to trade. Its terms keep a right to limited checks. Aster is closed to the US, Canada, the UK, China, Russia, Ukraine and sanctioned countries.

Deribit requires KYC: ID, proof of address and a financial profile before any deposit. It is closed to the US, Canada, Japan and retail UK clients.

The UK appears on both lists, with a difference: Aster is closed to the UK, while Deribit is closed only to retail UK clients. Check your own status against each exchange's terms before you deposit.

Vault, token and points

Aster runs ALP (Aster Liquidity Pool), a vault run by the exchange. It takes the other side of traders' positions, so its depositors carry the traders' profit and loss. Burning ALP locks the withdrawal for 48 hours, and the mint and burn fee is 0.25% ± 0.05%.

Aster's token is $ASTER. As of 19 September 2026 its points and airdrop program was at "Stage 5".

Reading the numbers on this page

Both exchanges publish open interest as one side of open positions, so the open interest row and chart above compare like with like. Neither figure counts longs and shorts twice.

Deribit publishes no TVL, as is usual for a centralized exchange. The TVL row and chart therefore show Aster alone, as DefiLlama's figure for the deposits its bridge holds. They are not a measure of Deribit's size, and the volume and open interest charts are the ones to compare.

Which one fits you

• Pick Aster if you want to keep funds in your own wallet and trade without ID.
• Pick Aster if you place resting limit orders: 0 bp maker against 1.5 bp.
• Pick Aster if you need more than 50x, or want stocks, commodities and FX among 588 markets.
• Pick Aster if you want a vault to deposit in, accepting that depositors carry the traders' profit and loss.
• Pick Deribit if you prefer an exchange account and accept ID, proof of address and a financial profile.
• Pick Deribit if you trade crypto perps with market orders: 3.5 bp taker against 4 bp.
• Pick Deribit if you want hourly funding on every market, with no per-market intervals to check.