DEX governance token ASTER surged roughly 11% in the past 24 hours after Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) revealed that he purchased 2 million ASTER tokens. CZ went on to disclose that he wasn’t a trader but a hodler instead and that the purchase was not related to Binance or any promotional arrangement, emphasizing it was a ‘personal buy.’
Shortly after the price surge, CZ commented that he had hoped to purchase more tokens while prices were still low. He added that he rarely buys tokens, noting that aside from Aster, the only other token he’s acquired was BNB, which he bought nearly eight years ago and still holds it.
ASTER’s wild price swings
This is not the first time ASTER has reacted strongly to CZ’s involvement. The token saw some major whale accumulation the day it listed on Binance. According to CoinMarketCap.com three wallets reportedly accumulated more than $10 million in ASTER in 24 hours. The total value locked (TVL) of the platform briefly exceeded ~$2 billion, demonstrating substantial liquidity inflow.
On the flip side, the exchange was also accused of washing trade and saw DeFiLlama delisting its perpetual futures volume data. Following the delisting, the native token fell by over 10%. Analysts note that while momentum is bullish, ASTER remains highly volatile and vulnerable to whale-driven market structure plays.
On-chain analysis also points out that a very high percentage of ASTER tokens may be concentrated in a small number of wallets. For e.g., six wallets are said to control about ~88% tokens or more.
Whale shorts and CZ’s response
Despite the rally, some large holders are reportedly shorting against ASTER, betting the price will retrace after the hype cools. Responding to criticism that his public disclosures influence markets, CZ noted in an X post that, “It’s a decentralized world. Anyone can short, anyone can long, anyone can hold.”
He later posted a poll asking whether he should continue publicly disclosing personal token purchases in the future. Many in the poll suggested that CZ should continue to be transparent, with 70% of the over 27k voters who took the poll suggesting that he should publicly disclose future purchases.