An altcoin that exploded on the scene this year is surging thanks to a boost from Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao.

In a new tweet, CZ disclosed purchasing 2,090,598 Aster (ASTER) tokens on Binance at around $0.913 each, sparking a 36% price jump to a high of $1.25.

Zhao emphasized his philosophy of buying and holding, comparing it to his early BNB investment eight years ago.

Aster is a decentralized exchange that’s active on the Solana network, BNB Chain, Ethereum and Arbitrum, offering spot and perpetual trading with up to 1001x leverage.

It supports crypto and U.S. stocks, settled in crypto without bridging.

Backed by YZi Labs, Aster launched in September 2025 on BNB Chain.

CZ’s prior on-chain buys in September fueled early hype.

Since launching in mid-September at around $0.10, Aster rocketed over 1,000% to a peak of $2.41 by September 24th, then pulled back to about $1.16 amid volatile trading volumes.

Aster is priced at $1.22 at time of publishing, up 26% in the last 24 hours.