Is Aster just CZ taking Binance on-chain?
ASTER continues turning heads, parlaying the momentum of a wild weekend into a fresh all-time-high.
A Binance listing and support from Changpeng “CZ” Zhao sent the token soaring, and had the crypto community wondering if Aster could take Hyperliquid’s crown.
But what exactly are the links between the upstart decentralized perps exchange, its centralized counterpart Binance, and CZ himself?
Aster’s origins
Aster was formed in December last year, following the merger of decentralized finance (DeFi) projects APX (formerly Apollo X) and yield farm Astherus.
APX was an established perps DEX, while Astherus called itself a “multi-asset liquidity hub.”
Both projects were based on Binance’s BNB Chain (formerly Binance Smart Chain), and prior to the merger, Astherus had received VC investment from Binance Labs, now YZi Labs.
The investment came as a general push to back projects “building meaningful technology and driving growth of the ecosystem,” and was destined to “accelerate product development, introduce innovative yield-generating products, and further enhance the user experience.”
Astherus’ yield products included stablecoin USDF — not to be confused with DWF Labs’ Falcon USD.
Continuing under Aster, yield-bearing asUSDF acts as an Ethena-style “CeDeFi” play, with assets custodied by Ceffu (formerly Binance Custody).
The rebrand to Aster was announced in March, laying out the features of the new DEX. Foreshadowing recent events, it also claimed that Aster was “strategically positioned to challenge industry leaders like Hyperliquid.”
The APX token, which survived a $1.5 million hack in June 2022, was migrated to ASTER on the latter’s launch earlier this month.
Read more: DWF Labs-backed USDf depegs as red flags raised over quality of backing
CZ’s cheerleading
ASTER’s launch was followed two days later by a listing on Binance. After initially drawing attention to the post-launch price action, CZ has both lent into and shied away from association with the project.
Off the back of the weekend’s Aster pump, Zhao responded to a non-contextualized viral video clip, captioned “$ASTER CODED,” saying, “When one door closes, another one opens.”
Read more: The rise and fall of Binance’s CZ
In the video, Zhao says it’s “kinda good” being “forced not to spend time on [Binance],” continuing, “I actually have more time to contribute to the decentralized ecosystem.”
Zhao is presumably referring to the conditions of his plea deal which required him to step down as CEO after “failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering (AML) program.”
He may have less to fear in future ventures.
In a June 1 X post, Zhao suggested it “might be a good time for someone to launch a dark pool perp DEX.”
The post refers to the pitfall of traders being able to see each other’s trades on transparent blockchain-based exchanges (such as Hyperliquid).
“Hidden orders” is one of the features Aster offers over competitors.
Despite his insinuations, Zhao has denied being directly involved, saying, “I don’t even run a perp dex project. I just sh!t post,” and debunking doctored screenshots of business records.
He also claimed yesterday, responding to reporting from the Financial Times, that YZi (again, formerly Binance Labs) is not a spin-off of Binance and operates independently.
Whether involved or not, Zhao has taken to X to promote the idea that “growing the industry is easier than taking market share from existing players.”
However, the messages are rather mixed, on the one hand saying that a “rising tide lifts all boats” whilst also egging on Aster’s provocative addition of 300x leverage on HYPE (while max leverage on other assets was capped at 100x).
Battle of the DEXs: Aster vs Hyperliquid
Recent price moves have thrust Aster into the spotlight and the increased attention, as well as airdrop farming efforts, have led it to eclipse Hyperliquid in key metrics.
According to data from DeFiLlama, Aster has achieved higher DEX volume than Hyperliquid on three of the last five days.
A sharp uptick in daily perps volume shows Aster taking the lead there, too, with volume double that of Hyperliquid over the last two days.
According to CoinMarketCap data, ASTER is up over 2,500% in the last seven days, while HYPE is down 17% over the same period.
While Aster remains a long way off “flipping” Hyperliquid’s total value locked or market cap, one DeFi commentator pointed out that, in crypto, “rotations are quick and brutal but perp dex traders are even more aggressive.”
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