Since Aster launched, HYPE has crashed 27% in five days. Worse, the outlook remains quite bearish with massive HYPE unlocks on the horizon.
Nothing happens by accident.
CZ, the Binance founder, has been working on Aster for months and planned his attack against Hyperliquid at a strategic time. This article will answer why he chose to strike now.
Become a Patron for lifetime access to our exclusive private alpha!
First, lets have a look at the damage. As you can see on the chart, before the Aster token was launched, Hyperliquid was making price record after record. This came to an abrupt halt as soon as CZ tweeted about Aster.
The result? HYPE is down 27% in five days.
Meanwhile, Aster is the exact opposite! Since my signal in our Patrons Pro group (see Unlimited plan), the price tripled! I already secured some profits as shown on the chart. I rode it from $0.06 to $2.1. That’s a 3x in five days!
I already explained why I aped in my last article and many of our members did the same. I am glad to see so many made solid profits on this play. Such opportunities don’t come often, but when they do, don’t hesitate!
As mentioned last Sunday, Hyperliquid has been a pain in Binance’s back for months. A systemic threat. Hyperliquid raised too quickly and too fast, putting in danger Binance’s market position.
With CZ fresh out of prison, they got to work to fix this “problem”. Their plan was already exposed back in June. Check the timing of the below post on X.
Clearly it was just a matter of when Binance would strike, not if. They already tried to nuke Hyperliquid in the past by liquidating their protocol vault. That failed, so they moved to Plan B: Aster.
Why strike now?
CZ is no newbie in this space and timing is everything. When he nuked FTX with one tweet, his timing was perfect. The launch of Aster is no accident either. It happens exactly two months before major HYPE unlocks.
In late November, Hyperliquid will begin vesting linearly 237.8M HYPE over 24 months. At $50 per token, that’s $11.9B in team unlocks or nearly $500M notional hitting the market every month. No buy-backs can absorb that sell pressure.
This data was provided by Maelstrom. The boss of Maelstrom is Arthur Hayes. He also happens to be a big actor involved in Ethena / ENA / USDe where Binance is a key partner as well.
As it happens, Arthur sold his HYPE this week and was very vocal about it, explaining that HYPE is likely to crash because of the above unlocks. In parallel, Aster was pumping daily.
Coincidence? Unlikely.
What CZ, Binance, and friends are doing is taking advantage of a weak position in which HYPE find itself. The Hyperliquid team can choose to not even sell those tokens that are vested, but CZ does not care about that.
All he has to do is create the impression that HYPE is weak and provide a comfortable alternative that keeps retail happy by pumping Aster to new highs. With a tight control of the Aster supply and billions in the bank, he’s been very successful to date.
With that in the bag, the momentum is already shifting in Aster’s favor. The question is if it will be sticky and last. With CZ and friends behind it, probably.
In light of the above, it’s hard to see Hyperliquid dominate in the next couple of months, particularly because Aster is just one of the exchanges aiming to erode Hyperliquid’s market share. Another leading candidate is Lighter which I covered in Alpha Post #74.
Lighter has zero fees for retail and Aster has the Binance moguls behind it. Either way, this tells me Hyperliquid has graduated to the big league because it’s competing with some of the best in the industry now. Tough place to be in, but also an opportunity to swing back higher later on.
Hyperliquid was no accident either, and to some extent, came as a direct result of the FTX implosion by offering an alternative to centralized exchanges. In a way, CZ’s actions to nuke FTX led to Hyperliquid. A nice way to close this circle.
In crypto, liquidity and attention moves in seconds if someone has more to offer. Hyperliquid is suffering from that right now, but after this battle for the DEX pie mellows down in 2026, I believe HYPE will continue to dominate. Only a black swan event can take it wildly off course.
Should HYPE continue to underperform in the next few months, that’s an excellent opportunity to load up on it and get a good bag. HYPE already had a significant correction in the past (-72%). This one could be similar and provide a great entry.
Whatever happens, this market is full of opportunities and unexpected turn of events that can quickly allow you to double, triple or 10x your money in a short amount of time, like with Aster.
I’ll be right here should that happen again and I’ll share the alpha with you as soon as I smell it.
Are you bullish or bearish on Hyperliquid? Reply in the comments and don’t forget to subscribe!
This newsletter is made possible with the generous support of our Patrons and partners. Upgrade your experience by becoming a Patron for lifetime access to our exclusive private alpha! Details are available on our Patrons page. All info is provided for educational purposes only and is not financial advice.
Perhaps in a few months the trade will be: sell Aster, buy Hype. :)