Aster Sets PAPER Perp Delisting After Transferability Decision

Aster placed its PAPER pre-launch perpetual market in reduce-only mode Monday and scheduled its delisting after Papertrade said it has no current plans to make the underlying token transferable.

The decentralized exchange announced the restriction with immediate effect and set the delisting for 9:45 p.m. ET on Oct. 19 — 01:45 UTC on Oct. 20. It urged traders to close open positions before that deadline, calling the decision a “precautionary measure to manage market risks and maintain orderly trading conditions.”

Aster had introduced PAPER pre-launch perpetuals earlier Monday with up to three times leverage.

Reduce-only mode prevents traders from opening new positions. Under Aster’s published delisting rules, positions still open at delisting are automatically closed at the final mark price, trading fees apply, and unrealized profits or losses are realized.

Those general rules calculate the final mark from an average of the price index sampled every second over the last hour before trading stops. Aster’s separate pre-launch contract terms reserve its final authority over the delivery price. The PAPER notice did not specify a settlement price or a market-specific calculation.

Paragon Had Already Halted PAPER

Aster’s notice quoted Papertrade’s transferability statement, which The Defiant reported earlier Monday. “At this juncture we do not have plans to allow off-contract token transferability,” the team wrote.

PAPER is the native token of Papertrade’s perpetual-trading platform. It is minted to traders who realize eligible losses and can be staked for USDC revenue distributions, but cannot be transferred between wallets, according to its documentation.

The team argued that external PAPER shorts could increase the potential payoff from manipulating the prices used by its platform: an attacker could profit both from draining its trading bankroll and from a short against PAPER. It said it could limit its own bankroll but could not control external derivatives exposure.

Paragon said it had already halted its para:PAPER market at 6:31:15 p.m. ET Monday. It explained that the pre-launch contract had relied on PAPER eventually becoming tradable, allowing the derivative to converge toward a spot price.

Paragon said all open positions were settled at $0.026296, using the time-weighted average oracle price over the hour ending at the halt. Open orders were canceled, remaining margin was released and realized profits or losses were reflected in account balances. It said it would review reopening the market if PAPER’s transferability plans changed.