Decentralised perpetuals exchange Aster soared on Sunday after Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said he has purchased more than $2 million in the protocol’s token. The Aster token was trading at $0.91 on Sunday before Zhao, better known as CZ, said on social media that he had bought just over two million tokens. Within an hour, Aster was trading above $1.20, an increase of more than 30%. “I am not a trader. I buy and hold,” Zhao wrote on X. The upstart is backed by YZi Labs, a family office run by Zhao. T ...

Aster has overtaken Hyperliquid in trading volume over the past 24 hours as traders pile onto the platform following its announcement of a second token airdrop. The perpetual futures exchange registered $13.5 billion in trading volume, compared to Hyperliquid’s $9.6 billion, per DefiLlama data. On Monday, Aster told users that it had redesigned its airdrop points campaign to make it more rewarding. Those who trade on the platform can earn points, which will convert into Aster tokens when the campaign en ...