Aster vs Pacifica

Aster or Pacifica: which to use

Aster vs Pacifica comes down to chain, market count and leverage. Aster runs on BNB Chain, lists 588 perps and allows up to 300x, with a 0 bp maker fee. Pacifica runs on Solana, lists 77 perps, allows up to 50x and pays funding every hour on every market. Both charge a 4 bp taker fee, both are decentralized exchanges, and neither asks for ID. Pick Aster for the wider market list, higher leverage and a vault. Pick Pacifica for Solana and hourly funding everywhere.

How each exchange is built

Both are decentralized exchanges (DEX): you trade from a self-custody wallet, not from an account held by a company. Aster runs on BNB Chain. Pacifica runs on Solana. Both match orders on a central limit order book.

For the trader, the chain is the network the exchange runs on: BNB Chain for Aster and Solana for Pacifica.

Fees and what they mean

Aster's base tier charges 0 bp maker and 4 bp taker, per Aster's fee page. Pacifica's base tier charges 1.5 bp maker and 4 bp taker, per Pacifica's fee page.

The taker rate is the same, so market orders pay the same fee on both. A market order pays it on entry and again on exit, which makes a round trip 8 bp in fees on either exchange. The maker rate differs: a limit order that rests on the book pays 0 bp on Aster and 1.5 bp on Pacifica.

The fee is only part of a trade's cost. The rest is slippage, the price you move by eating through the order book, which grows with size. The cost table above adds both at each size, and 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. Pacifica lists 77, 24 of them real-world assets.

Aster allows up to 300x and Pacifica up to 50x on their highest-leverage markets; most markets allow less. Pacifica pays funding every hour on every market. Aster pays every 1 hour, 4 hours or 8 hours, depending on the market. On an hourly market a position settles funding 24 times a day, and on an 8-hour market three times. Check the interval of the market you trade before you size a position that you plan to hold. The markets both exchanges list are further down this page, with each one's funding rate.

Who can use them

Neither exchange asks for ID. Aster has no ID to trade, though its terms keep a right to limited checks. It is not for the US, Canada, the UK, China, Russia, Ukraine or sanctioned countries. Pacifica has no ID and blocks the US, Canada, the UK, China, Russia, Ukraine, the Philippines and sanctioned countries.

Vaults, tokens and points

Aster runs a vault, ALP (Aster Liquidity Pool). It takes the other side of traders' positions, so depositors carry the traders' profit and loss. Burning ALP carries a 48-hour lock, and the mint and burn fee is 0.25% ± 0.05%. Pacifica has no vault that arb.sh tracks. The vaults page lists the vaults perp DEXs run themselves.

Aster's token is $ASTER. Pacifica has no token yet. As of 19 September 2026 Aster's points program was at "Stage 5" and Pacifica's was "Active". The airdrops page tracks both.

Reading the numbers on this page

Aster publishes open interest as one side of open positions. Pacifica publishes longs plus shorts, both sides of every position, about twice a one-side count. For the same positions, Pacifica's figure reads about twice as large, so the open interest row and chart above are not a like-for-like comparison of size.

TVL above is DefiLlama's figure, and it measures different things. For Aster it is the deposits its bridge holds. For Pacifica it is DefiLlama's figure for the exchange.

Which one fits you

• Pick Aster if you want a 0 bp maker fee on resting limit orders.
• Pick Aster if you need up to 300x, or want 588 perps with 133 real-world asset markets.
• Pick Aster if you want to deposit into a vault, with its 48-hour lock on burn and 0.25% ± 0.05% fee.
• Pick Pacifica if you want to trade on Solana.
• Pick Pacifica if you want funding paid every hour on every market, not a mix of 1, 4 and 8 hours.
• Pick Pacifica if you want a points program and no token yet, with the program "Active" as of 19 September 2026.

Aster's page and Pacifica's page have each exchange's markets, funding and fees.