Aster's launch has been one of the most jaw-dropping crypto stories of the year. The decentralized exchange built on BNB Chain has seen daily trading volumes go above $20.8 billion, leaving Hyperliquid behind on $9.7 billion.
Its token, ASTER, shot up by more than 8,000% in just a week since its debut, peaking at $2.30 and pushing its market capitalization past $3.7 billion.
The speed of that move makes it look like Binance founder CZ might have had a hand in it. People are still wondering about the launch, the financing ties through YZi Labs and the sudden appearance of Trust Wallet partnerships. Aster was being called "the next BNB," and some posts even said Changpeng "CZ" Zhao was part of the core team.
Is Binance and CZ behind Aster?
That rumor died down pretty quickly though as Zhao himself made it clear that he isn't running Aster, he is just advising its builders.
But this didn't really change things much. As long as Binance was involved in some way, even if it was a small part, that was enough to keep the project in the eye of the public.
It's not all about Binance ties as Aster's got market participants hooked with a fresh product feature — hidden orders that let traders make bids and offers without showing them on-chain.
That feature, along with the fee discounts and how well it works with BNB's ecosystem, gave it the kind of reputation that most new DEXes miss out on.
Skeptics say the exchange is washing its volume because it's got a few big wallets holding a lot of the supply. But supporters say that the fact that BNB Chain is backing it, CZ is on the advisory board and it's getting a lot of traction shows why people already think of Aster as the next big thing.
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov
U.Today Editorial Team