⚠︎ Risk warning: leveraged derivatives on unregulated platforms — you can lose everything you deposit. Not investment advice.

Comparison · By Stephan Kulik · Updated 2026-09-10

Aster vs Paradex (2026): 0% Maker vs Zero-Fee Retail

Both venues run live tokens, weekly points programmes and headline fees near zero, and each puts its asterisk in a different place. Aster's zero is for makers on both perp families, with published taker rates. Paradex's zero is for retail accounts on both sides, with a published Pro ladder for API flow. Aster's book is public on BNB Chain; Paradex hides positions on a Starknet appchain and adds options to perps and spot.

At a glance

✓ facts verified 2026-07-16 · each venue's official docs Every cell restates a claim on one of this site's pages: /compare/hyperliquid-vs-aster/ , /aster/fees/ , /compare/hyperliquid-vs-paradex/ , /paradex/fees/ , /airdrops/ .

Fees

Aster — Order-book maker/taker; two perp contract families with different taker rates. Base tier: 0.04% (USDT-margined) / 0.005% (USD1-margined) taker, 0% maker. Taker numeric uses the USDT-margined family; USD1-margined trades at 0.005% — pick per family when calculating. Discounts: Referral rebate up to 10% (referrer-configured split, not guaranteed); ASTER-token fee payment discount exists as a separate lever. 0% maker means maker-heavy flow pays nothing — and generates no referral commission. Schedule verified 2026-07-31 on /aster/fees/.

Paradex — Zero-fee Retail orders (web app or interactive-token API); Pro orders (standard API) pay a flat maker fee and a 14-day-volume taker ladder. Base tier: 0% (retail) / 0.045% → 0.035% (Pro, by 14-day volume) taker, 0% (retail) / 0.003% (Pro) maker. The zeros describe RETAIL orders. Pro orders pay 0.003% maker and 0.045% taker at the base tier (floor 0.0175% after discounts) — use those for API flow. Discounts: Pro taker: pay fees in DIME for a flat 40% off; stake DIME for a further tiered discount up to 30%; floor 0.0175%. The headline zero covers Retail-classified orders only; an account that exceeds Retail rate limits switches to Pro behaviour and the ladder applies. Schedule verified 2026-09-10 on /paradex/fees/.

Base-tier rates answer one narrow question — what a small taker order costs on day one. Your maker/taker mix, volume tier and holding period decide the real number; the fee comparison lays all twelve venues side by side and the execution-cost tool adds live slippage on top.

Markets they share

In this site's market join, snapshot 2026-09-02, Aster lists 538 perp markets and Paradex lists 62; 59 appear on both. The market index shows every asset with the venues that list it and each venue's published leverage, and the join is refreshed weekly by a fail-closed pipeline. Breadth is not depth: a listing says nothing about how much size a book absorbs, which the execution-cost tool measures live where a venue publishes its order book.

Token and points

• Aster: $ASTER · live (TGE claim window 17 Sep – 17 Oct 2025). Points: Active — Aster Convergence: Stage 6; Calculated weekly; five point categories × team boost, plus two-level referral points; weightings undisclosed. Docs: points "accumulate toward your $ASTER airdrop share at the conclusion of Stage 6". Conversion ratio, Stage 6’s share and the end date are not published.
• Paradex: $DIME · live (fees payable in DIME at a flat 40% discount; fee-revenue buybacks). Points: Active — XP Season 3; 4,000,000 XP/week, distributed every Wednesday; 1 Feb 2026 – TBD. No XP-to-token conversion statement in the docs. Pre Season + Season 1 distributed ~100M XP, Season 2 ~236M XP.

Both rows are restated from the points & airdrop tracker, which is re-read against each venue's docs on a 45-day cadence and never prices a point.

Where Aster wins

A schedule without a classification switch: 0% maker and stated taker rates at any size, plus per-symbol funding intervals published through the API. The points path is documented: Stage 6 points accumulate toward an $ASTER airdrop share, and the tokenomics reserve a 53.5% Airdrop category. Aster also lists far more perp markets in this site's join.

Where Paradex wins

Product surface and privacy: perps, options and spot in one place, with positions hidden from the public book. Retail accounts trade free on both sides. DIME utility is live and documented, with fees payable in DIME at a flat 40% discount and buybacks from net revenue. XP Season 3 publishes its weekly pool and start date. What XP becomes is not stated, which is the one point where Aster's docs say more.

What this site could not verify

• Aster: US access rules — not verified either way.
• Aster: Liquidity depth — not benchmarked by this site.
• Aster: The points-to-token ratio, Stage 6’s share of the airdrop allocation, and the stage’s end date — unpublished.
• Paradex: KYC rules and restricted jurisdictions — not stated in the docs read on 2026-09-10.
• Paradex: What XP converts to — no XP-to-token statement in the docs.

Which to pick

If you trade retail size and want options or privacy, Paradex offers both at zero fee. If you trade size through an API, price Aster's taker rate against Paradex's Pro ladder. If you are trading for points, Aster's programme is the one with an airdrop link, though neither publishes a conversion ratio. The Aster review and Hyperliquid vs Paradex carry the detail behind each cell.

Related comparisons

• Aster vs dYdX
• Aster vs edgeX
• Aster vs Extended
• Aster vs Pacifica
• Aster vs GMX
• Hyperliquid vs Aster
• Hyperliquid vs Paradex

FAQ

Which is cheaper?

For a retail taker, Paradex at 0%. For a maker, both are 0%, but only Aster's zero is unconditional on order classification. For Pro flow on Paradex, the published ladder starts at 0.045% taker and 0.003% maker.

Do points convert to tokens on either venue?

Aster's docs say Stage 6 points accumulate toward an $ASTER airdrop share without a ratio; Paradex's docs make no XP-to-DIME statement. Both rows are dated on the tracker.

Can I see positions on Paradex?

No; hiding them is a stated design choice. Aster's book is public. That is a strategy preference, not a safety ranking.