How to Use Tokenized Stocks as Collateral for Perps on Aster (2026)

For years the line between holding stocks and trading crypto perps was hard: your brokerage equity could not back a position on a decentralized exchange. Aster has just erased part of that line. As of June 15, 2026, you can post tokenized stocks like Tesla and Nvidia as collateral for perpetual futures on Aster, opening a crypto position while your equity exposure keeps working in the background.

This is a genuinely new capability, and the mechanics have sharp edges worth understanding before you use them. This guide covers exactly which assets are supported, how the collateral haircut and cross-margin work, a worked example, the real risks of margining with a volatile equity token, and how Aster's privacy model fits in. Verify the specifics on docs.asterdex.com before trading, because Aster ships fast.

What "Tokenized Stocks as Collateral" Actually Means

A tokenized stock is an on-chain token that tracks the price of a real equity, backed by the underlying share held in custody. Aster supports the bStocks format, which is Binance's tokenized-equity product. This is an important distinction: bStocks are not xStocks, Backed, or Ondo tokens. If a guide tells you the provider is something else, it is wrong for Aster.

"As collateral" means these tokens can back your margin instead of you having to convert to a stablecoin first. You deposit the stock token, and its (haircut) value counts toward the margin that supports your open perps. You keep equity exposure and get trading buying power from the same asset.

There is one structural requirement: this only works in Multi-Asset Mode, Aster's cross-margin mode. In Single-Asset Mode (isolated, USDT-only) the stock tokens are not usable as collateral at all. We will come back to why that matters for risk.

The Four Supported Assets

At launch, Aster accepts four bStocks tokens as collateral, all on BNB Chain:

Two limits to keep in mind. First, this is BNB Chain only. Aster's other deployments (Ethereum, Arbitrum, Solana) do not list these tokens in their collateral tables, so if you want to use stock collateral you need to be on BNB Chain. Second, the list is short and curated; these are deep, liquid names rather than the whole stock market.

How the 90% Collateral Haircut Works

Every asset Aster accepts as collateral gets a collateral value ratio, which is the fraction of its market value that counts toward your usable margin. The four stock tokens are set at 90%, meaning a 10% haircut.

To put that in context, here is roughly where stock tokens sit on Aster's BNB Chain collateral ladder:

The haircut is the protocol's buffer against volatility. Equities can gap, and the 10% discount gives the risk engine room before a falling collateral value threatens open positions. The takeaway: the dollar value showing in your wallet is not the margin you get. Multiply by 0.90 to know your real buying power from stock collateral.

A worked example

Suppose you hold $10,000 of TSLAB and want to trade crypto perps without selling your Tesla exposure.

This example is illustrative. Aster does not publish an exact maintenance-margin schedule for stock collateral, so do not infer a specific liquidation price from it. Use it to understand the shape of the mechanics, not to size a real trade.

The Risk That Is Easy to Miss: Correlated Drawdowns

The headline risk with equity-token collateral is not the haircut, it is correlation. With a stablecoin, your collateral value is roughly constant, so only your position moves. With TSLAB or NVDAB, your collateral and your position can move against you simultaneously.

Picture the bad case: you are long a crypto perp and the market sells off. At the same moment, tech equities sell off too, so your Tesla-backed collateral also drops. Your position is losing money while the margin meant to support it is shrinking. The two effects compound, and liquidation arrives faster than the same trade backed by USDT would.

A second factor is market hours. Tokenized stocks can trade 24/7 on-chain, but the underlying equities do not. When US markets are closed, liquidity in the stock tokens is thinner, and prices can gap between sessions. The collateral is priced by the Pyth oracle, an institutional-grade price feed, but thin liquidity during off-hours still means sharper moves and a higher chance of sudden liquidation for an over-leveraged account.

Fees and Leverage on Stock Perps

Aster's tokenized stock perpetuals trade at 0% maker and 0% taker fees, with leverage up to 50x. That zero-fee rate is for the stock perp trade itself, and it is a different thing from the 10% collateral haircut on stock tokens used as margin. Do not confuse the two: one is the cost of trading a stock perp, the other is how much your stock collateral is worth as margin.

For context on the rest of the fee table:

• USDT-margined crypto perps: 0% maker, 0.04% taker.
• USD1-margined perps: 0% maker, 0.005% taker.
• Pay in ASTER: an extra 5% fee discount, stackable with the referral discount.

For the full breakdown across every market, see Aster fees explained and the fees hub. Fee schedules change often, so confirm current rates in the docs before trading.

Getting Started, Step by Step

If you have read the risk section and want to try it, here is the flow at a high level. Start at app.asterdex.com and, if you are new, walk through how to trade on Aster first.

How Aster's Privacy Model Fits In

One reason traders choose Aster over a centralized venue for this is its privacy design. Aster supports hidden orders and hidden positions: limit orders placed with no visible size or presence in the public order book, and resulting positions excluded from public data. The order details are concealed until execution, which reduces the chance that bots front-run or position-hunt your trade.

For equity-collateralized perps that matters more than usual, because a large, identifiable position backed by a known stock token could otherwise be a target. The full mechanics are covered in Aster hidden orders explained. Combined with self-custody, it is the differentiator that an independent equity-collateral trader is usually after.

The Bottom Line

Tokenized-stock collateral is a real expansion of what a DEX can do: keep your Tesla or Nvidia exposure on-chain and borrow margin against it to trade perps, all self-custodially and with hidden-order privacy. The mechanics are specific, though, and worth respecting. Four bStocks tokens on BNB Chain, a 90% collateral ratio, cross-margin only, zero-fee stock perps up to 50x, and a correlation risk that means your collateral and your position can fall together. Used conservatively it is a powerful tool; used as an excuse to over-leverage a volatile equity, it is a fast way to a liquidation. Verify the live details in the Aster docs, size for the bad case, and start small.

Sources: Aster docs — Single & Multi-Asset Mode, Aster docs — Hidden Order, Cryptonews.net, and The Cryptonomist — cited under fair use for educational purposes. Figures are snapshots; verify current details in the official docs before trading.