Looking up a transaction
Aster Chain transaction hashes are 32-byte hex strings — same format as Ethereum and BNB Chain. Example: 0x6b17a8f0c2…e9d3b1 (truncated). Paste a full hash into the AsterScan search bar and you land on /tx/{hash}.
The fields, explained
- Hash — the unique transaction identifier. 0x + 64 hex chars. Generated when the tx is signed.
- Block — which block included this tx. Click the number to see all the other txs in the same block (validator, timestamp, etc.).
- Validator — which of the 7 permissioned validators sealed this block. Useful for tracking which validator your tx went through.
- Action — the canonical type. See the full list below.
- User — the address that signed and submitted the tx.
- Timestamp — when the block was sealed. Block time is ~50ms so this matches when the user clicked.
- Data — the decoded payload. Varies per action type (symbol + price + qty for PlaceOrder, order ID for CancelOrder, amount + asset for Deposit, etc.).
- Fee — gas paid in ASTER. Usually 0 or a tiny fraction. Trading fees themselves are in USDT and not visible here — they're settled at fill time, separately.
Canonical action types
Every Aster Chain tx is one of a small set of typed actions (no opaque contract calls — Aster Chain is purpose-built for the AsterDEX flow). The ones you'll see most:
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| PlaceOrder | Submit a new order (limit, market, stop). Most common action by volume. |
| PlaceStrategy | Submit a multi-leg order (TWAP, OCO, bracket). Bot territory. |
| CancelOrder | Cancel a single open order by ID. |
| CancelOrders | Cancel multiple orders in one tx (e.g. cancel-all on a symbol). |
| CountdownCancelAll | Auto-cancel-all if no heartbeat received in X seconds. MM safety net. |
| Deposit | User deposits funds (typically USDT) into their AsterDEX account. |
| Withdraw | User withdraws funds out to their wallet. |
| AdjustLeverage | Change leverage on a position. |
| ChangePositionSide | Switch between hedge mode and one-way mode for a symbol. |
| UpdateOracle | Validator-side: oracle price feed update. Drives mark price. |
| ChangePrivacyMode | Toggle privacy mode on/off for orders. See privacy tracker. |
| FeeBurn | Toggle Fee Burn mode (pay trading fees in ASTER at a discount, burned). |
| Noop | No-op heartbeat. Used by the matching engine for timing. |
Each action type has its own color in the AsterScan UI. See the live transaction stream for a real-time mosaic of which actions are firing right now.
Privacy mode & encrypted payloads
AsterDEX supports an optional privacy mode where order payloads are encrypted on-chain — the action type and validator info stays public, but the symbol / price / quantity are hidden behind a cipher. AsterScan shows these as cipher: ... in the data field. The cipher is opened only by the matching engine; outside observers never see the cleartext order.
The privacy adoption tracker shows what fraction of network traffic is currently using privacy mode.
Common gotchas
- A PlaceOrder doesn't mean a fill. It means the order was accepted into the orderbook. Fills are matched internally by the engine and don't emit per-fill on-chain events visible on AsterScan.
- Rapid PlaceOrder + CancelOrder pairs from the same address are usually market makers spam-quoting. Not bots spamming the chain.
- UpdateOracle from a validator address is normal infrastructure traffic, not a user action. Filter these out if you're analyzing user behavior.
Programmatic access
AsterScan exposes the same data as the AsterDEX upstream via a thin proxy:
- GET /api/staking/validators — current validator set
- GET /api/staking/epochs — current + next epoch metadata
Per-tx and per-block lookup go directly to the AsterDEX endpoints — see docs.asterdex.com.
Last reviewed April 2026. Action-type list reflects the current Aster Chain schema; new actions ship occasionally with chain upgrades.