Aster USDF

Rejected venues wait the longest for re-review; a rejection has to earn another look before the scheduled date.

REJECTED ON A CATEGORICAL US EXCLUSION, THE SAME PATTERN THIS REGISTRY ALREADY REJECTED FOR SOLSTICE. USDF is a delta-neutral basis-trading stablecoin structurally identical to Ethena USDe and Solstice — deposited USDT is deployed into long-spot, short-perpetual positions on Binance through Ceffu custody, earning funding-rate income that stakers capture through asUSDF. Aster’s own Terms and Conditions, governed by Hong Kong law with HKIAC arbitration, explicitly prohibit use by United States residents and entities alongside a standard sanctioned-jurisdiction list, drafted in language nearly identical to Solstice’s own exclusion, already rejected in this registry. No incorporated legal entity name was found anywhere in Aster’s documentation, consistent with the same disclosure gap this registry already documented in its existing Aster Bridge entry. That entry also found DefiLlama delisted Aster’s self-reported perpetual-trading volume after it proved unverifiable and closely mirrored Binance’s own figures — directly relevant here since USDF’s yield depends on that same trading venue.

Kill criteria: the events that revoke this verdict
• A US-eligible offering opens to this registry’s target client population
• A named incorporated legal entity is disclosed for Aster
• Admin, multisig, or pause authority over the USDF and asUSDF contracts is publicly disclosed
• DefiLlama or an independent source confirms Aster’s underlying perpetual-trading volume as verifiable, resolving the wash-trading concern this registry already documented for Aster Bridge

The research file

Mechanism

USDF is minted 1:1 against deposited USDT. Deposited collateral is deployed into delta-neutral positions — long spot paired with short perpetual futures on major assets like BTC and ETH, executed on Binance — earning funding-rate and fee income rather than directional price exposure. Staking USDF mints asUSDF, a yield-bearing wrapper whose net asset value accrues weekly-distributed trading profits. This is the same basis-trading template this registry has already evaluated for Ethena USDe, Solstice, and BitFi Basis.

The categorical US exclusion

Aster’s Terms and Conditions explicitly prohibit use by residents, citizens, or entities incorporated or located in the United States, alongside Canada, the UK, China, and standard OFAC-sanctioned jurisdictions. No incorporated legal entity name or jurisdiction of incorporation is disclosed anywhere in Aster’s documentation beyond ”governed by Hong Kong law” — the same gap this registry’s existing Aster Bridge entry already found. Per that entry, YZi Labs, a venture vehicle associated with Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, holds a minority stake in Aster, with Zhao stating his own role is advisory only.

Custody and control

Collateral custody runs through Ceffu, the Binance-affiliated institutional custodian, via its MirrorX system, mirroring a 1:1 balance to a Binance sub-account for trading while assets remain in Ceffu cold storage off-exchange; withdrawals from Ceffu to Binance settle T+1. Ceffu holds ISO 27001/27701 certification and SOC 2 Type 1 and 2 compliance. No named multisig or admin-key holder for the USDF or asUSDF minting and redemption contracts was disclosed — a gap that applies platform-wide across every Aster product this registry has reviewed, not specific to USDF.

Redemption and the wash-trading concern

Direct redemption is 1:1 to USDT with a 0.1% fee, processing in 1-2 days for standard amounts and up to 7 days for large amounts, with no yield accruing during the wait; an instant PancakeSwap swap path exists at market price and slippage instead. This registry’s existing Aster Bridge entry documents that DefiLlama delisted Aster’s self-reported perpetual-trading volume after finding it mirrored Binance’s own figures too closely to independently verify — a direct credibility concern for USDF specifically, since its yield is generated on that same trading venue, even though USDF’s own TVL accounting was not the flagged data.

Track record and comparison

Tracked TVL grew from roughly $2M at its November 2024 launch to a peak near $370.5M in October 2025, then declined roughly 70% to around $112-113M at this review. Audits from PeckShield and Halborn were located directly in Aster’s own documentation despite DefiLlama’s protocol record showing zero. Against Ethena USDe, already covered elsewhere in this registry with named owner and admin multisigs and a disclosed Risk Committee, USDF discloses materially less about its own governance. Against Solstice, also rejected on a near-identical categorical US exclusion, USDF adds an unresolved trading-venue credibility question Solstice does not carry.

Sources

The claims above trace to these. Where a number could not be independently verified, the thesis says so.

• Aster documentation — how USDF works · primary · accessed 2026-08-19
  Supports: delta-neutral mechanism, asUSDF yield wrapper
• Aster — Terms and Conditions · primary · accessed 2026-08-19
  Supports: explicit US-person and prohibited-jurisdiction exclusion, Hong Kong governing law and HKIAC arbitration, no named incorporated entity
• Aster documentation — fund custody and risk management · primary · accessed 2026-08-19
  Supports: Ceffu MirrorX custody chain
• Aster documentation — audit reports · primary · accessed 2026-08-19
  Supports: PeckShield and Halborn audit engagements for USDF and asUSDF
• DefiLlama — Aster USDF protocol data · secondary · accessed 2026-08-19
  Supports: TVL history and peak-to-current decline

Inherited controls

The verdict above grades the protocol layer. Every position also inherits the asset it holds and the chain it settles on. The least safe layer sets the position’s grade, and the position table names which one that is.