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. The Binance founder has previously used his star power to hype up his investment in Aster.

Perpetuals exchanges have boomed in 2025. In recent months, Aster has overtaken Hyperliquid in terms of trade volume, processing more than $70 billion in trades over the past seven days, according to self-reported data.

But that data has come under scrutiny. 0xngmi, the pseudonymous head of DL News sister company DefiLlama, briefly delisted Aster’s perpetual volume, citing their inability to verify the protocol’s self-reported figures.

“Aster is reporting very, very high perp volumes,” 0xngmi told DL News at the time. “It’s a bit suspicious.”

Nevertheless, DefiLlama relisted Aster’s self-reported figures as the data platform works on a new method of tabulating the exchange’s perpetual volume.

Sunday’s rally was the latest to demonstrate how the protocol’s fortunes are closely tied to the crypto billionaire.

Zhao was forced to step down from his role as Binance CEO after he pleaded guilty to violating US banking laws. After serving a four-month prison term in the US, Zhao has pressed for a presidential pardon, according to news reports.

That work paid off on October 23 when US President Donald Trump pardoned Zhao.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told DL News that Zhao “was prosecuted by the Biden Administration in their war on cryptocurrency.”

With Zhao’s pardon, that war is “over,” Leavitt said.

Aster and Binance’s BNB ($1,074.67) token both rallied when the news broke.

Aster jumped double digits, to $1.07, in the hours following the announcement of Zhao’s pardon. BNB, the native cryptocurrency of Binance’s BNB Chain, surged by more than 5% to $1,123.

Aleks Gilbert is a DeFi correspondent for DL News. Have a tip? Email him at aleks@dlnews.com.