Is CZ’s “well done” for Aster the first step to dismantle Hyperliquid?

CZ’s “well done” marked Aster’s rise, and possibly the start of his challenge to Hyperliquid’s position at the top.

Aster positions itself as Hyperliquid’s rival

Aster entered the market on Sep. 17 with its Token Generation Event and the immediate listing of its native token ASTER, marking the project’s formal debut as a direct challenger to Hyperliquid (HYPE).

The exchange had first been introduced in July as Aster Chain and is backed by Changpeng Zhao linked YZi Labs, formerly Binance Labs, along with PancakeSwap (CAKE), the leading decentralized exchange on BNB Chain.

Its arrival drew strong attention because of its ties to CZ, the former Binance chief, who continues to support the project through YZi Labs, a group tied to Binance’s investment arms.

Aster is built to capture the same on-chain derivatives market that Hyperliquid has dominated in recent months, and trading on launch day showed immediate traction.

ASTER opened near $0.08, crossed $0.20 within hours, and traded in a wide range between $0.10 and $1.27, according to CoinGecko. As of Sep. 18, the token was priced at $1, up more than 330% in 24 hours. 

Reports also placed total value locked on the platform above $1.85 billion, showing that participation extended beyond speculative flows.

Aster distributed 704 million tokens, around 8.8% of supply, through an airdrop from a circulating 1.65 billion. The total supply is capped at 8 billion. Unlike many projects where airdrops lead to sell-offs, ASTER climbed higher, pointing to strong demand.

The launch has placed Aster in direct competition with Hyperliquid. With CZ’s support visible, many see the project as an effort to channel liquidity toward an exchange that stays connected to Binance’s ecosystem through BNB Chain.

Hyperliquid cements its position

Hyperliquid provides the benchmark against which Aster has positioned itself. HYPE reached an all-time high of $59.29 on Sep. 18, climbing more than 40% in the month, confirming its lead as the go-to venue for decentralized derivatives trading.

Built as a custom Layer-1 exchange focused solely on perpetual futures, it now accounts for more than four-fifths of the DeFi perps market, according to RedStone’s mid-2025 estimates.

Daily trading often exceeds $10 billion, and in August nearly $400 billion in volume moved through the platform, placing it in rare territory among decentralized projects by competing directly with the largest centralized exchanges in turnover.

Much of this growth is tied to performance. Transactions settle quickly, with median trade execution near 0.2 seconds and even the slowest 1% of trades completing in under 0.9 seconds. Throughput capacity has been reported at up to 200,000 transactions per second in parts of the system.

Together with zero-gas trades and transparent order books that allow every order to be audited on-chain, Hyperliquid has given traders an experience resembling the speed and reliability of centralized platforms while maintaining DeFi’s openness.

The effect on market share has been striking. According to Dune Analytics, when Hyperliquid launched in late 2024, its volume accounted for just 1% of Binance’s perpetual activity. By early 2025, the ratio had climbed to 8%, and by September 2025, it had reached 24.7%.

Binance still leads the overall derivatives sector, with daily volumes above $20 billion across products, but Hyperliquid’s peaks of $10–15 billion now rival a quarter of Binance’s perps flow on volatile days.

Adoption has been driven not only by product design but also by changing trader behavior. Events such as the $1.4 billion Bybit hack in early 2025 renewed concerns about custodial risk on centralized venues.

Hyperliquid’s non-custodial model, combined with the absence of identity verification barriers, attracted high-volume traders looking for both security and unrestricted access.

Incentives tied to the HYPE token have further reinforced its growth. Buybacks have already absorbed more than 30 million tokens, while about 42% of supply remains set aside for distribution, including airdrops.

Questions grow as Aster mirrors CZ’s playbook

Hyperliquid’s growing share of the perpetual futures market has not gone unnoticed by CZ. The most visible case came during Bitcoin’s drop below $105,000, when trader James Wynn saw positions worth about $100 million liquidated on Hyperliquid.

Since the exchange operates with fully transparent order books, critics argued that larger players and MEV bots were able to anticipate and front-run orders, intensifying the liquidation. CZ drew on this example to argue that complete transparency may create vulnerabilities rather than protections.

The alternative he presented was a model closer to a dark pool for decentralized perpetuals. In such a system, large trades would remain hidden until execution, shielding positions from front-running and lowering the risk of liquidation hunts.

Aster moved quickly to adopt this approach, announcing the launch of “Hidden Orders” on its Aster Pro platform on Jun. 23. The feature allows trades to be placed without visible exposure until they are matched, directly reflecting CZ’s critique of Hyperliquid’s transparency.

The conversation did not end there. Wynn and other traders publicly urged CZ to challenge Hyperliquid more directly, with some noting that his experience and network could give him an advantage in reshaping the market.

Those expectations gained momentum when CZ promoted Aster on X. His praise of the launch as “well done” stood out, since endorsements of new tokens beyond BNB or Bitcoin have been rare in his public commentary.

His visibility shifted in other ways as well. In September, he changed his X profile to remove the “ex-” prefix before “Binance CEO,” a move that sparked debate over his ongoing relationship with the exchange.

At the same time, reports surfaced that Binance was close to finalizing a Department of Justice settlement that could end its compliance monitor requirement, which observers linked to the possibility of leadership changes.

Aster framed as CZ’s bet to shape the next cycle

Speculation around CZ’s intentions toward Hyperliquid has only intensified. On X, traders interpret his promotion of Aster as more than a casual endorsement.

One post described it as a calculated move to dismantle the DeFi perps leader, calling it his big bet to reclaim market share.

The debate has revived older narratives around what users describe as “crime season,” a shorthand for disruptive plays associated with CZ in earlier cycles.

One widely shared post claimed, “Every Fall CZ pulls up and decides to just on-chain crime some shit… now we got a Hyperliquid competitor on Binance.”

Allegations have also emerged that the playbook extends beyond Aster. On Sep. 9, the X analyst TrueeConnector argued that Binance has already sought to undermine Hyperliquid through market manipulation.

The thread cited the “JELLY attack” in March 2025, when whales linked to Binance-funded wallets allegedly shorted Hyperliquid perps while simultaneously driving spot prices higher.

The strategy nearly drained $230 million from Hyperliquid’s vaults before the exchange delisted JELLY and compensated users. Instead of collapsing, Hyperliquid turned the incident into a $700,000 profit and earned stronger community backing.

The same thread alleged that Binance later shifted support toward MYX Finance, a BNB Chain based exchange launched through Binance Wallet in May.

With trading contests, zero-fee promotions, and claims of inflated order flow, MYX was portrayed as a “puppet DEX” designed to draw attention away from Hyperliquid.

Taken together, CZ’s bet on Aster reads less like a side project and more like an attempt to shape the rules of the next derivatives cycle.

Whether that slows Hyperliquid or strengthens it will depend on how traders judge not only liquidity, but also the type of market architecture they prefer to trade in.