The native token for the decentralized exchange protocol Aster spiked over 30% on Sunday after Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao disclosed that he now holds over $2.5 million in Aster.
CZ shared his wallet holdings in an X post on Sunday, and said he bought “some Aster today, using my own money on Binance.”
“I am not a trader. I buy and hold,” he added.
The post prompted Aster to jump from $0.91 to a peak of $1.26, according to CoinGecko. At time of publication, it was trading at $1.22.
Privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash experienced a similar bump last week off the back of an endorsement from another influential name in the space, rising 30% hours after crypto entrepreneur Arthur Hayes predicted the token would eventually reach $10,000.
Traders follow CZ piling into Aster
The post led to a notable jump in Aster’s trading volume over the last 24 hours, with data from analytics platform DefiLlama showing it has risen from $224 million to over $2 billion.
The tokens market capitalization has also grown in step with its other key metrics, rising from $1.8 billion to over $2.5 billion.
A trader under the handle “Gold” announced on X that they had opened a position in Aster after CZ’s post, explaining it was the first time CZ had ever announced buying a token outside of BNB.
“CZ, the most influential figure in crypto and creator of the largest platform in crypto announced his purchase of ASTER with personal funds. That’s it. Don’t overthink it,” they added.
Soon after the spike, CZ addressed the situation and said, “damn, I was hoping to buy some more at low prices,” and that he doesn’t “buy tokens often,” other than Aster and BNB eight years ago, which he still holds.
Whales are shorting Aster
Not everyone is convinced that the rally will last, though. Two whales are betting against CZ and shorting Aster in the hope that the price will go down.
One trader built up their Aster short to 42.97 million tokens, worth $52.8 million, with a liquidation price of $2, blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain said on Sunday.
Another trader also decided to bet against the rally and increased their short position to 15.3 million Aster, worth $19.1 million, with a liquidation price of $2.11.
CZ’s connection to Aster
In September, CZ congratulated Aster on X, writing he thought the project was off to a good start and encouraged the developers to “keep building,” though there were questions about how closely CZ was tied to the project.
Related: Aster’s quiet relisting on DefiLlama leaves ‘big gaps’ in data: Exec
What is known is that CZ’s family office, YZi Labs, formerly known as Binance Labs, invested in Aster’s predecessor, Astherus, last year. Aster was born out of a merger between Astherus and decentralized perpetuals protocol APX Finance in late 2024.
In September, a BNB Chain representative told Cointelegraph that Aster received support from BNB Chain and YZi Labs, but did not disclose whether CZ was directly involved.
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