The mechanic
A Listing Vote is the on-chain process that decides whether a new perpetual contract gets listed on AsterDEX. There are five moving parts:
- Who can propose. Any active validator on the Aster Chain set that has at least 20M $ASTER staked.
- How a proposal is submitted. On-chain action signed by the proposer's validator key. Costs gas in $ASTER. The proposer specifies the symbol, the contract address (where applicable), and the suggested risk parameters.
- Voting window. Opens at proposal time and runs for a fixed period. The first vote ran for 4 days. Check the proposal on AsterDEX governance for the exact deadline.
- Vote weighting. By $ASTER staked, regardless of which validator the user delegated to. One ASTER staked, one ASTER of weight. No quadratic voting, no validator-relayed votes.
- Outcome. The proposal passes if the approval threshold is reached before the window closes. Thresholds are defined per market type, see the AsterDEX docs for the canonical numbers.
If the vote passes, the pair goes live on AsterDEX with a contract, leverage tier, and fee schedule set by the proposer.
What this changes
Listing velocity
Faster. No longer gated by team bandwidth or roadmap timing. A validator can propose a market the day a new asset becomes interesting.
Listing diversity
Validators with niche networks (gaming, RWA, AI tokens, regional equities) can drive their own listings without waiting for top-down approval.
Skin in the game
The 20M stake floor means a proposer has meaningful capital aligned with the outcome. Spam proposals are expensive.
What it does NOT change
- Validation. Who runs the chain. The validator set itself is still permissioned, see Aster validators explained.
- Custody, contract code, oracle. Same engine, same trust assumptions. The Listing Vote only decides what trades, not how.
- Risk parameters. Leverage caps, liquidation buffers, and fee tiers are set per-pair but follow the existing tier system. A proposer cannot invent a 1000x tier out of thin air.
The first vote
The first Listing Vote was proposed on May 18, 2026 by a validator operator and covered BTC/U and ETH/U perpetuals. Voting ran until May 22, 2026 at 06:00 UTC.
Check the outcome live
For the live result and any follow-on votes see AsterScan governance or the official @Aster_DEX feed.
Reading a Listing Vote on AsterScan
AsterScan's governance dashboard decodes Listing Vote proposals and renders them as a visual map: one tile per validator, a stake bar that animates as votes land, and the live pass/fail threshold. Each tile links to the validator's profile and to the proposer's address page.
You can also follow the raw on-chain payload via the transaction page, the action type is decoded by AsterScan and you will see the symbol and proposer fields broken out.
Further reading
Last reviewed May 2026. Numbers drift — check the governance dashboard for current values.
Corrections → @aster_scan