Crypto Journalist
Anas Hassan
Crypto Journalist
Anas Hassan
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BNB Chain Perpetual DEX market hit a record $67 billion in trading volume on September 24, marking the highest ever for the second consecutive day.
Dune Analytics shows that the surge was driven by viral newcomer Aster DEX, plus Lighter and Hyperliquid, each hitting over $10 billion in daily volume.
Beyond these leaders, other Perp DEXs, including EdgeX and Paradex, also crossed the $1 billion mark.
With momentum building on the BNB Chain, traders are now asking whether this breakout could fuel BNB’s run toward the $2,000 mark.
Data shows that out of the $67 billion record volume, BSC captured $33 billion (48%), with Hyperliquid at $10.8 billion, ZKLighter at $10.5 billion, EdgeX at $5.8 billion, and Solana at $1.6 billion.
BNB Chain led all blockchains with an 80.22% volume surge over 7 days, while Ethereum, Solana, and Base split the remaining 20%.
The surge follows ASTER’s explosive 2,200% rally from $0.06 to $2.3 in one week, making it the second-largest protocol with over $13M daily fees, surpassing Circle, Uniswap, Jupiter, and Hyperliquid.
Although this growth to grab a large portion of the DEX market share has been widely applauded by big players in the crypto space, there are concerns over possible wash trading behind the spike.
Wash trading involves buying and selling assets to manipulate prices, either to profit from leverage positions or liquidate others’ contracts.
For example, a trader with $100M of BNB could open a 50x short, dump tokens on Binance to crash the price, close the short at a profit, then buy back BNB at a discount.
Many critics, particularly Hyperliquid loyalists, have accused ex-Binance founder CZ of pumping the ASTER token to increase trading activities on the BNB Chain.
CZ shared an ASTER chart about 6 days ago when it was trading at $0.17, and since then, the DEX token has gone up over 1,000%, while Hyperliquid’s HYPE token has lost over 24%, which has led many to accuse the BNB maxi of wash trading.
One critic also pointed out that Aster’s perp volume to TVL ratio is around 19, which indicates an extremely aggressive amount of wash trading.
He asserts that traders are only using ASTER DEX for incentive farming, and if rewards drop, activity could collapse, creating a death spiral that hurts both the token and BNB Chain volume.
Another crypto trader and angel investor, Cyclop, shared that $ASTER and the BNB DEX volume are being backed by wide-range market manipulation.
He revealed that 96% of the token supply is controlled by 6 wallets (probably one entity, which many have accused of being Binance).
However, many analysts have pointed to the relentless strength of the BNB token as a catalyst for continued DEX dominance on BNB Chain.
Franklin Templeton’s $1.6T RWA Bet Fuels BNB $2,000 Target
The BNB token recently reached an all-time high of $1,080, and 75-year-old Wall Street giant Franklin Templeton, with $1.6 trillion under management, just deployed on the $BNB Chain to bring money market funds and RWAs directly on-chain.
Analysts are now seeing BNB gunning for a new high toward the $2,000 mark.
On the technical front, the 4-hour BNB/USDT chart shows price consolidating just under the $1,000 level after a strong rally, with Fibonacci extensions pointing to potential upside targets between $1,100 and $1,300 if momentum resumes.
The MACD is flattening after a bullish cross, while the RSI has pulled back from overbought levels and is stabilizing, suggesting room for another leg higher if buyers step in.
The immediate support rests around $960–$980, and holding this zone keeps the bullish structure intact.
A clean bounce from here could push BNB toward $1,080 and eventually $1,160, while a breakdown below $950 would expose deeper retracements toward $862.
Overall, the indicators favor short-term consolidation before a likely continuation to the upside.
