Crypto News: Mr Beast Bet $990K on Aster Amid Market Criticism for DEX

Crypto tracking platform Lookonchain has revealed that YouTube star Jimmy Donaldson, famously known as Mr Beast, made a major move in the digital asset market this week.

Over the past three days, he acquired 538,384 ASTER tokens, valued at roughly $990,000.

The purchase was funded through a $1 million USDT deposit split between his known public wallet (0x9e67) and a newly created wallet (0x0e8A).

From there, MrBeast withdrew ASTER tokens at an average price of about $1.87 each. The scale and speed of the purchase have not gone unnoticed.

Mr Beast Acquires Aster Tokens Valued at $990,000 in 3-days

On-chain insights from Lookonchain suggest that MrBeast reportedly spent $990,000 to buy roughly 538,384 ASTER tokens when the price was around $1.87.

Many see this as a classic “buy the dip” strategy. It has been riding a wave of attention as perpetual decentralized exchanges have surged in popularity, a trend that Hyperliquid helped ignite only weeks ago.

The token itself has shown explosive growth. From just $0.10 on September 17, ASTER rocketed to more than $2.40 by September 24, setting fresh all-time highs before correcting to $1.80.

That momentum, however, has cooled. Broader market weakness and a round of profit-taking have pulled the price lower.

At the moment, ASTER is changing hands at $1.80, up by 192% in the past 7-days.

Mr Beast started his buying spree on Sunday when he deposited $114,000 to the Aster decentralized exchange, reported The Coinrepublic.

Aster Bug Triggers Liquidation but the DEX Quickly Reimburses Losses

Meanwhile, the BNB-based decentralized exchange Aster completed reimbursements to traders who suffered losses from a recent glitch in its Plasma (XPL) perpetual market.

The technical error briefly sent prices soaring far above fair market levels, creating chaos for affected users.

The problem, according to Abhishek Pawa, CEO of Web3 agency AP Collective, came from a misconfigured index hard-coded at $1.

Once Aster lifted the mark price cap, the bug allowed XPL futures to spike to nearly $4 while it traded at $1.30 elsewhere.

That sudden divergence set off forced liquidations and abnormal fee charges, leaving many traders with unexpected losses.

Yet the platform reacted quickly. It reassured users that their funds were safe and promised full compensation.

Within hours, the exchange confirmed that reimbursements had already been credited to all affected traders’ accounts.

Soon after, Aster went a step further by issuing an additional round of compensation, this time covering trading and liquidation fees tied to the glitch.

Simon Dedic Heavily Criticizes Aster

Simon Dedic, managing partner at Moonrock Capital, has not held back in his assessment of Aster.

In a sharp critique, he argued that the project is following what he calls the “crime-ponzi playbook” step by step.

According to Dedic, this playbook involves copying an existing product with proven market demand.

From there, he claims the team distributes large allocations to influential figures and insider groups to generate hype and control liquidity.

He also accuses the project of inflating trading activity through wash trading in order to appear stronger than competitors.

Dedic went further, suggesting that Aster’s tokenomics are designed to maximize control. By retaining most of the supply, he says, the project can manage sell pressure while market makers push aggressive price action.

In his view, the cycle creates a self-reinforcing narrative until the hype inevitably fades and the search for the “next big thing” begins.

Nevertheless, Aster has kept its momentum, helping push total perpetual DEX volumes to $104 billion on Friday. That marked the fourth day in a row of record-breaking activity across the sector.

Data from DeFiLlama highlights just how dominant the decentralized exchange has become.

The platform alone handled $46 billion in trading volume on Friday, more than double the numbers posted by its closest rivals. Aster reached nearly $19 billion, while Hyperliquid followed with about $17 billion.