If you’ve been paying attention to the DeFi space lately, you’ve probably heard about Aster — the next-gen decentralized exchange that’s been making serious waves. I’ve been diving deep into their airdrop program, and I wanted to share what I think is the easiest strategy to maximize your points during the Aster Genesis airdrop stages. Whether you’re a seasoned DeFi farmer or just getting started, this delta neutral approach keeps things simple and relatively low-risk.
What Is Aster DEX?
Before we get into the strategy, let me give you a quick rundown on Aster. It’s a multi-chain perpetuals DEX that combines order book trading with user-friendly features across BNB Chain, Ethereum, Solana, and Arbitrum. Think of it as a decentralized Binance Futures — you get up to 1001x leverage, hidden orders for execution privacy, MEV-resistant routing, and yield-bearing collateral options like asBNB and their native stablecoin USDF.
Aster emerged from a merger between Astherus and APX Finance, and it’s backed by YZi Labs (spun out from Binance Labs). The platform has processed over $258 billion in trading volume and gained 710,000 new users in a single week after their second airdrop. With a total token supply of 8 billion ASTER and over 50% allocated to community airdrops, there’s a massive incentive to get involved early.
The Aster Airdrop Structure
Aster has been running multiple airdrop stages to reward active users. The initial airdrop distributed 704 million ASTER tokens (8.8% of total supply) to early participants who earned Spectra points and Gems through platform activity. Later stages — including Stage 2 Genesis, Stage 3, and the Aster Crystal phase — added additional claim windows distributing over 200 million more ASTER tokens.
The key thing to understand is that Aster rewards trading volume, liquidity provision, and consistent platform usage. Points are calculated weekly through epochs, and the more active you are, the bigger your allocation. This is where the delta neutral strategy comes in — it lets you generate consistent trading volume without taking on directional market risk.
The Delta Neutral Strategy Explained
This is the core of what makes this approach so effective. A delta neutral strategy means you’re holding offsetting positions so that your overall exposure to price movement is essentially zero. Here’s how it works on Aster:
Step 1: Take 50% of your capital and hold it in a spot position. For example, swap some BNB into USDT and keep it on the spot side of Aster.
Step 2: Use the other 50% to open a short perpetual contract position on the same asset. This hedges your spot exposure — if the price goes up, your spot gains offset your perp losses, and vice versa.
Step 3: Manage your positions every four hours, which aligns with the funding rate refresh cycle on Aster. This generates consistent trading volume and lets you capture funding fees along the way.
The beauty of this approach is that you maintain a break-even point on your actual trading while generating the volume and activity that earns you airdrop points. You’re essentially farming points for free (minus trading fees), and the funding fees you collect can actually make this strategy net profitable.
Key Tips for Maximizing Your Points
From my experience farming Aster airdrops, here are a few things that make a real difference:
Watch your liquidation price. Even though delta neutral is low-risk, you still need to monitor your perpetual position. Make sure your liquidation price has enough buffer — especially during volatile market conditions. Set alerts and check in regularly.
Factor in market order fees. Every time you open or close a position, you’re paying around 0.08% in fees on most crypto pairs. This eats into your margins, so be strategic about position sizing and how frequently you’re rotating.
Use the team boost. Aster offers referral bonuses and team multipliers. Joining an active team can give you up to a 1.5x boost on your earned points, which adds up significantly over the course of an airdrop stage.
Stay consistent. The points system rewards regular activity over sporadic large trades. Managing positions every four hours and maintaining steady volume is more effective than dumping a huge trade once and walking away.
Why Aster Is Worth Farming
What makes Aster particularly interesting compared to other airdrop opportunities is the sheer scale of their token allocation to the community. With over 50% of the 8 billion ASTER supply earmarked for airdrops and community rewards, and major token unlocks strategically delayed to 2026-2035, there’s a deliberate effort to minimize sell pressure and reward long-term participants.
The platform has also been burning tokens — they recently burned approximately 78 million ASTER as part of their S3 buyback program, permanently removing them from circulation. Protocol revenue gets routed toward buybacks and staking rewards, creating a sustainable feedback loop.
Aster is also building its own Layer 1 blockchain (Aster Chain) designed specifically for high-performance, privacy-focused derivatives trading with zero-knowledge proof integration. This is a significant move that positions the platform for long-term growth beyond just being another DEX on BNB Chain.
Getting Started
If you want to try this strategy yourself, head over to asterdex.com and connect your wallet. You can start with Simple Mode if you’re new to perpetuals, or jump straight into Pro Mode for the full order book experience. Deposit some USDT or BNB, set up your delta neutral positions, and start farming those points.
Remember — this is not financial advice. Always do your own research and never risk more than you can afford to lose. But if you’re looking for a relatively straightforward way to participate in one of the biggest airdrop programs in DeFi right now, the delta neutral strategy on Aster is about as easy as it gets.
Keep an eye on the official Aster channels for announcements about new airdrop stages and claim windows. The earlier you get in and start building your activity history, the better positioned you’ll be when the next distribution rolls around.
Michael Gu
Michael Gu, Creator of Boxmining, stared in the Blockchain space as a Bitcoin miner in 2012. Something he immediately noticed was that accurate information is hard to come by in this space. He started Boxmining in 2017 mainly as a passion project, to educate people on digital assets and share his experiences. Being based in Asia, Michael also found a huge discrepancy between digital asset trends and knowledge gap in the West and China.