Insider selling at Aster has become such a frequent complaint on social media that its CEO had to slash airdrop marketing plans, modify its buyback mechanism, and swear insiders weren’t selling ahead of schedule.
Over the last three months, the price of its native token has declined twice as much as bitcoin and three times as much as HYPE, the native asset of its primary competitor, Hyperliquid.
Although the vast majority of digital assets decline in value as a general rule, Aster’s particularly egregious underperformance is salient given its financial backing and promotion by Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the billionaire founder of Binance.
CZ has been at the center of numerous controversies in recent days, suffering continued blame for Binance’s role in crypto liquidations and a flood of anti-Binance posts on social media.
Needless to say, fans of CZ, Binance, and Aster aren’t happy about Hyperliquid’s dramatic outperformance.
Aster’s CEO apologized for a languishing token price, but failed to stop upcoming supply pressure from his team’s token unlocks.
Aster token unlocks and insider selling will continue. Source: CoinMarketCapAster CEO tries to soften insider selling
Like Hyperliquid, Aster calls itself a decentralized exchange, despite operating under a CEO. Leonard, a pseudonym, runs Aster and responded to public outcry today.
In his post, Leonard admitted to the dismal price performance of Aster. “I want to acknowledge that we understand the frustration of many holders because of the recent price performance of Aster. We heard those feedbacks and are trying our best to reverse the trend.”
Unfortunately, that apology stopped short of ending, let alone reversing, his team’s insider vesting and selling schedule.
Read more: Is Aster just CZ taking Binance on-chain?
The Aster CEO went on to explain a reduction in airdrops of tokens to third-party communities, which have dubious efficacy as a marketing tactic relative to their inflationary pressure on existing Aster token holders.
After all, a “free” airdrop has a cost — diluting prior investors. There’s no free lunch on Wall Street.
In addition, he admitted that Aster token buybacks have been somewhat unpredictable and difficult to independently verify on blockchain explorers. The CEO promised to enable daily buyback programs that “execute automatically from fees generated” by Aster’s crypto exchange.
CZ has repeatedly promoted Aster and is a minority investor in the project via his family office, YZi Labs. Aster uses BNB Chain, a blockchain founded by CZ’s Binance.
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Source: https://protos.com/aster-price-continues-to-bleed-as-ceo-responds/


