Key Takeaways
- CZ was accused of offloading $30 million worth of ASTER.
- However, the Binance founder has debunked the rumors.
- Aster is one of the top three decentralized perpetual futures exchanges, which are almost tied for trading volume.
Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has denied an allegation that he sold 35 million ASTER, calling out the crypto influencer who made the claim.
Meanwhile, the Aster versus Hyperliquid race rages on, with just a thin margin separating the top two decentralized perpetual futures exchanges.
Did CZ Sell $30 Million of ASTER?
In a post on Thursday, Oct. 30, the crypto influencer FarzadXBT alleged that a “CZ linked wallet” had sold 35 million ASTER worth over $30 million.
He shared of what looked like a screenshot from Arkham Intelligence showing an address labelled as belonging to Zhao.
There was just one problem. The claim is easily debunked. No such transaction can be identified on Arkham, which shows that the only transfers of more than ten million ASTER tokens in the past seven days were executed by exchanges.
Responding to Farzad’s post, CZ said it was “crazy” that a prominent influencer would “photoshop fake images.”
The Binance founder speculated that the allegations were an attempt at “click baiting, fud, or trying to buy [the] low himself?”
Perp DEX Volumes Neck and Neck
With CZ as its most conspicuous cheerleader, Aster has emerged as one of the most popular perp DEXs, challenging Hyperliquid for its crown.
Since Aster was relisted on DeFiLlama, the top three decentralized perp venues have jostled for position at the top of the leaderboard.
At the end of October, Hyperliquid’s 30-day volume stood at nearly $301.538b2 billion. After that, Lighter and Aster came in almost-tied for second place, with $263 billion and $250 billion each.
On the other hand, if using open interest to measure popularity, Hyperliquid’s lead is more secure. With open positions worth $9.3 billion as of Oct. 31, Hyperliquid’s open interest is three times Aster’s and more than five times Lighter’s.
The discrepancy between open interest and trade volume indicates that lower-value trades characterize activity on Aster and Lighter, while Hyperliquid remains the whales’ favorite.
While the highest-value Hyperliquid address is a mysterious whale with $1.5 billion in HYPE staked, other top wallets are active perpetual traders, including one with $145 million in margin and open positions worth nearly $488 million at the time of writing.
James Morales is CCN’s blockchain and crypto policy reporter. He has been working in the news media since 2020, writing about topics such as payments, banking and financial technology. These days, he likes to explore the latest blockchain innovations and the evolving landscape of global crypto regulation.
With an educational background in social anthropology and media studies, James uses his platform as a journalist to explore how new technologies work, why they matter and how they might shape our future.
