Aster, a YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs) backed decentralized perpetual exchange, unveiled its native token ASTER on Wednesday. It surged over 300% from its initial price within hours of its launch.
Aster, launched in July on Binance’s BNB Chain, enables traders to speculate on cryptocurrency prices with leverage. Beside YZi Labs, a top decentralized exchange (DEX) on BNB Chain, Pancakeswap also provided significant backing to Aster.
Prior to the token launch, the platform was running the Aster Genesis program to support the growth and trading activity on its DEX. Based on this, it initiated the token airdrop and rewarded contributors with a total of 704 million ASTER tokens.
The timing of the launch could not be better as Hyperliquid, the leading perpetual DEX, is making waves, with its native token HYPE hitting a new all-time high the same day.
At the time of publishing, ASTER token was trading $0.3981 with a market cap of $659.25 million and a 24 hour trading volume of $330 million, as per CoinMarketCap data.
CZ sparks a cold-war
Celebrating the token launch, Changpeng Zhao, Co-Founder of Binance, cherished the Aster team by sharing a post on his X handle. “Well done! Good start. Keep building!,” he said while sparking chatter around the fact that he is only supporting Aster, via YZi Labs investment, to give indirect competition to Hyperliquid.
“He’s obviously pissed about hyperliquid and plays to win,” said an X user Tulip King noting that he also recently removed “ex-Binance” from his bio and made it “Binance” and now “he’s back in charge.”
Notably, Hyperliquid has generated billions in trading volume and it is giving tough competition to leading centralized exchanges (CEX) like Binance and Coinbase. Its decentralized nature—not requiring KYC and open for all—as well as CEX-like trade execution is making it increasingly popular among crypto traders.
Increasing competition to Hyperliquid
Being a top perpetual DEX, Hyperliquid is currently facing huge challenges from various emerging competitors. One of the close competitors was Lighter, which recently gained popularity after its points trading went viral. Now, Aster, with backing from the “Binance Cartel” is taking over the crypto community, rising toughly against Hyperliquid’s dominance in the decentralized perpetuals ecosystem.
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