Aster Issues User Refunds Following XPL’s ’Abnormal Price Movements’—The Inside Story
Aster scrambles to contain fallout after XPL's wild price swings trigger mass refunds.
What Went Wrong with XPL
Trading algorithms went haywire—sending XPL on a rollercoaster ride that vaporized positions in minutes. The platform's safeguards failed to kick in before liquidity pools got drained.
Damage Control Mode
Aster's team activated emergency protocols, freezing withdrawals and launching what they call a 'transparent reimbursement process.' The move signals how quickly crypto platforms pivot from growth-at-all-costs to crisis management.
Trust But Verify
Users report mixed experiences with refund timelines—some praising swift action while others question why risk management systems crumbled during volatility. Another day, another reminder that in crypto, 'abnormal' is often just Tuesday.
Perpetual futures trading vs spot trading
It's worth noting that perpetual futures trading works very differently from regular, spot trading. Perp trading does not technically mean owning the underlying asset, with the user instead betting on whether the token will go up or down by shorting or longing—often combined with heavy leverage.
With traders not directly owning the asset, the functions of tracking the token’s price are different from spot trading, which is where the XPL glitch originated.
Fortunately, anyone impacted by the blip has been fully refunded in USDT, Aster tweeted, after a couple of compensation rounds. The exchange urges any affected users who haven’t been refunded to open a ticket on Discord.
XPL is now trading at $1.17 on Aster, ironically in line with CoinGecko’s valuation.
Meanwhile, Aster’s token has dropped 12% on the day to $1.80, as the glitch cast doubt over the exchange. The chances of Aster hitting $4 before November have widened to just 27% on Myriad, a prediction market developed by Decrypt’s parent company DASTAN, down from 38% on Thursday morning.
