Aster launches first USD1-denominated RWA perpetual markets with $28M liquidity fund

Aster DEX just went live with something the perpetuals market hasn’t seen before: real-world asset contracts settled entirely in USD1, the stablecoin issued by World Liberty Financial. Five new perpetual markets launched on August 20, covering tokenized equities and commodities, with a liquidity fund worth roughly $28 million standing behind them.

The contracts, listed under Aster’s AOS-2 open listing standard, include SPCXUSD1, CLUSD1, XAUUSD1, SNDKUSD1, and SKHYNIXUSD1. If those tickers look like alphabet soup, think of them as perpetual futures on assets like gold and major equity indices, but denominated and settled in USD1 instead of the usual USDT.

What the liquidity fund actually looks like

Backing these new markets is a combined growth fund of 250 million WLFI tokens from World Liberty Financial and 12.5 million USD1 contributed by Aster. At current market prices, the total package comes to approximately $28 million.

USD1 itself has grown into a meaningful stablecoin, with roughly $4.4 billion in circulation as of early 2026. It’s now the exclusive settlement asset for all of Aster’s RWA and commodity perpetual contracts, a deliberate move to deepen the relationship between the two platforms.

From crypto perps to tokenized stocks and gold

This isn’t Aster’s first rodeo with USD1. Earlier phases of the partnership with World Liberty Financial brought USD1-denominated contracts for major crypto assets like BTC and ETH, complete with trading incentives to drive volume. The RWA expansion is the next logical step, and arguably the more interesting one.

Aster’s trajectory here has been building for a while. The platform, which emerged from a merger in 2025, operates as a multi-chain perpetual DEX with both simple and pro trading modes. It offers high-leverage options and has been supported by YZi Labs, with its own Aster Chain Layer 1 serving as the underlying infrastructure. The platform previously listed tokenized stocks and commodities pegged to USDT, so the shift to USD1 denomination represents a strategic pivot rather than a cold start.

The five newly listed contracts span what appears to be a mix of equity proxies and commodity exposure. XAUUSD1 is the clearest, tracking gold. The background research indicates the markets cover assets including SpaceX valuations and crude oil.

Why the stablecoin choice matters

By exclusively using USD1 for its RWA vertical, Aster is placing a bet that World Liberty Financial’s stablecoin can carve out a niche in trading infrastructure rather than just competing for generic stablecoin market share.

For World Liberty Financial, the arrangement drives real utility for USD1 beyond simple transfers and DeFi lending. Every open position on these contracts represents locked USD1 collateral. Every trade generates settlement volume.

The WLFI token allocation in the liquidity fund adds another layer. Those 250 million tokens give the fund exposure to the broader World Liberty Financial ecosystem, meaning the health of the liquidity backstop is partially tied to how WLFI performs.

Since March 2026, Aster DEX and World Liberty Financial have been strengthening their partnership by integrating USD1 as collateral and as a settlement asset for perpetual contracts, starting with major cryptocurrencies. By April, the collaboration focused exclusively on using USD1 for RWA and commodity perpetuals.