Cardano Perpetual · ADAUSDT

About Cardano (ADA)

Cardano is a blockchain platform built on academic research that enables smart contracts and decentralized applications while using significantly less energy than traditional cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. What sets Cardano apart is its methodical, research-driven approach — every major feature is peer-reviewed by scientists and cryptographers before being added to the network.

Trading Cardano Perpetuals on Aster

On Aster, Cardano trades as the USDT-margined ADAUSDT perpetual: a contract with no expiry date, where your collateral and your profit or loss are both settled in USDT rather than in ADA itself. Leverage runs up to 75x on the standard order-book market, and funding is exchanged between longs and shorts every eight hours to keep the contract price tracking its index. Orders can be placed openly or through Aster's hidden-order mode, which keeps size out of the public book until the moment it executes.

How the ADAUSDT Perp Differs From Owning Cardano

Buying Cardano outright gives you the asset. Trading the ADAUSDT perpetual gives you exposure to what its price does without ever holding it: you post USDT as margin, and the position is closed out in USDT at whatever level you exit. That difference has three practical consequences. Going short is as easy as going long, so a falling ADA price is something you can trade rather than sit out. Position size can exceed collateral, up to 75x, which magnifies losses at exactly the same rate it magnifies gains. And funding is paid or received every eight hours for as long as the position stays open, a running cost that someone simply holding Cardano never encounters.

Fees and Leverage on the ADAUSDT Market

Aster charges 0% maker and 0.04% taker on USDT-margined perpetuals, so adding liquidity to the ADAUSDT book costs nothing and taking it costs 0.04% of notional. Two discounts stack on top of that: paying fees in ASTER takes another 5% off, and signing up with referral code MMTz04 takes a further 5% off every trade. Leverage on Cardano is capped at 75x on the standard perp. Leverage does not change the fee rate, but it does change the notional those fees are charged against, so a 50x position pays fifty times the fee that the same collateral would pay unlevered. The full tier structure is in our Aster fees guide.

What to Know Before Trading Cardano

Three things decide whether a Cardano position survives. Funding is the first: the eight-hourly payment runs positive or negative depending on which side is crowded, and over days rather than minutes it compounds into a real drag on a held position. Liquidation is the second: at 75x, a move of roughly 1.3% against you consumes the margin backing the trade, before fees are counted. Liquidity is the third: depth on ADAUSDT varies by hour, and a market order sized past the visible book fills at progressively worse prices, which is the situation limit orders and hidden orders exist to handle. Set the stop before you open the position rather than after, and treat the leverage slider as a risk control rather than a way to buy more.

How to Trade Cardano on Aster in 4 Steps

1. 1Connect a wallet — open asterdex.com and connect MetaMask, Rabby, or any Web3 wallet. No KYC required.
2. 2Deposit USDT — fund your account with USDT to use as margin collateral.
3. 3Open the ADAUSDT market — select Cardano, choose your leverage (up to 75x), and set your margin mode.
4. 4Place your order — market or limit, with optional hidden-order mode for size. Manage risk with stop-loss and take-profit.

Cardano Perpetual — Contract Specs

Frequently Asked Questions