
The Chopping Block: Perp Wars & Stablecoin Battles: Hyperliquid, Aster, Tether - Ep. 911
Unchained
Why perps are lucrative and easy to replicate
Farooq discusses how perps can quickly generate revenue, low launch costs, and why cycles favor new protagonists each wave.
Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week, we’re joined by Farooq Malik, co-founder and CEO of Rain, as two parallel wars erupt across crypto: the Perp DEX war between Hyperliquid and the CZ-backed Aster, and the deepening battle for stablecoin dominance. As Aster rockets to $30B in daily volume, we debate whether it’s real adoption or points-fueled froth — and what it means for Hyperliquid’s lead. Then we dive into Tether’s shocking $500B valuation play, Circle’s shrinking moat, and how Rain is building real-world rails for stablecoin payments. If crypto has two new battlegrounds — trading venues and money itself — this is where the future is getting drawn.
Show highlights
🔹 DEX Wars: Aster vs. Hyperliquid – Aster hits $30B daily volume; is it real demand or a points-fueled surge? Hyperliquid’s dominance faces its first real threat.
🔹 CZ’s Return to Form – Aster’s Binance links, aggressive fee model, and possible “James Wynn” conspiracy theory raise the stakes in the perp DEX arena.
🔹 Wash Trading & Open Interest Gaps – Aster’s $2B TVL contrasts with $1.25B open interest vs. Hyperliquid’s $10B, sparking questions about organic traction.
🔹 Incentive Wars – Aster rewards takers 2x over makers; Hyperliquid and Blur praised for long-game design that built sticky liquidity instead of short-term volume.
🔹 The Execution Advantage – Haseeb: “Asia executes better than it innovates”; Aster may stumble now but could out-iterate and outscale its rivals.
🔹 Stablecoin Shockwave: Tether’s $500B Valuation Leak – Tether quietly seeks $15–20B in private funding, aiming for a $500B valuation—matching OpenAI and SpaceX.
🔹 Circle vs. Tether – Circle trades at 0.5x supply, Tether seeks 3x; the panel debates margins, moat, and whether USDC can survive the “reverse momentum.”
🔹 Rain’s Real-World Stablecoin Rails – Farooq Malik shares how Rain powers payroll, P2P, cards, and merchant payments on stablecoins—without touching fiat.
🔹 New Use Cases: Stablecoins in the Wild – On-chain credit cards, just-in-time lending, cross-border Facebook ad funding, and more—all enabled by 24/7 money.
🔹 Global Adoption: LatAm, MENA, Asia – Rain’s data shows stablecoin usage exploding outside the U.S., especially in regions with FX controls and unstable banks.
Hosts
⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly
⭐️Robert Leshner, CEO & Co-founder of Superstate
⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly
Guest
⭐️Farooq Malik, Co-Founder & CEO of Rain
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:02 Aster vs. Hyperliquid
14:25 Regulatory Capture: L2s, Sequencers, CFTC
26:08 Tether’s $500B Valuation: Bubble or Bargain?
31:36 Tether vs. Circle: Stablecoin Economics
42:56 Rain: Stablecoin Payments Infra
47:16 Stablecoin Use Cases; Cards, Payroll, P2P
54:04 Global Stablecoin Growth
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