The founder of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, has officially endorsed Aster (ASTER), a new decentralised derivatives platform that aims to challenge Hyperliquid's leadership in the industry.
In a post published on X on 19 September, Zhao revealed that Aster has become the largest holder of BSC-USDT after Binance's main wallet. According to data from Arkham Intelligence, Aster's wallet holds 131 million USDT, placing it just behind the 236 million held by Binance's hot wallet.
The announcement came just a day after Zhao praised the project's Token Generation Event (TGE), calling it a "strong start" and encouraging developers to keep building. The former CEO's visible support added further momentum to a launch that was already in the industry spotlight.
What is Aster?
Aster was originally born as ApolloX in 2021, before merging with Astherus in late 2024, resulting in the rebranding that culminated in the recent TGE. The event allowed holders of APX tokens to convert them into ASTER, rewarding long-standing investors who had been waiting for the transition.
The project is backed by YZi Labs, a venture capital fund linked to Zhao, an element that has helped fuel market enthusiasm. According to CryptoSlate, the ASTER token has grown by over 800% in the last week, reaching $0.81593 and bringing capitalisation to $1.3 billion. At the same time, APX also rallied over 600% in the same period.
A case in point was highlighted by Lookonchain: an initial investor in APX saw his investment from $226.000 dollars turn into over 2 million after the merger and conversion into ASTER.
A two-year hold just paid off, turning $226K into $2.03M!
- Lookonchain (@lookonchain) September 18, 2025
Diamond Hand 0x9d22 spent $226K to buy 3.62M $APX 2 years ago, which is now worth $2.03M.https://t.co/aUiXwFfJWB pic.twitter.com/FoJINHZQIJ
The challenge in decentralised derivatives
Beyond investor enthusiasm, Aster has quickly climbed the ranks among decentralised derivatives platforms. Data from DeFiLlama show that the exchange processed $1.4 billion in trading volume in the first 24 hours after launch, placing it among the most active in the industry.
However, competition remains fierce: Hyperliquid, its main rival, has moved around $10 billion in the same time frame. A difference that underlines the difficulties for Aster, despite the backing of Zhao and a better-than-expected start than the average new project.
