When the birds are gone, the good bow is hidden!

The essence of ASTER is not offense, but defense!

ZC's post perfectly matches the views and logic, even providing examples that analyze the strategic relationship between Aster and Binance Perp.

Let me also share a few thoughts～

🤔 Personally, I believe the reason Aster is currently popular is:

1️⃣ Initially, KOLs were extremely generous, releasing all airdrops at once, allowing KOLs to maintain enthusiasm even after the TGE.

2️⃣ CZ's purchase, as well as Binance's resource allocation.

Of course, these reasons are unrelated to product strength, which also means that Aster's popularity comes more from external factors rather than the competitiveness of the product itself.

However, I have hardly interacted with Aster since the TGE, and my impression remains at "a mess," making it difficult to assess its current product strength.

Combining with ZC's argument: Aster's path is very similar to the new army FTcoin that challenged the three major exchanges back in the day.

This example can also be applied to today's Perp DEX war, or it's a siege against HYPE.

For instance, the Perp DEXs supported by exchanges include Bybit's APEX, Kraken's Nado, and the new generation Lighter, EdgeX, Variational, GRVT, etc.

Even if it is not the defensive strategy of the exchanges, according to the "cake theory": if the market cannot expand, even the weakest similar products can take a share. As the number of products increases, the cake will inevitably be cut into smaller pieces until the war ends.

Returning to Binance's strategy, the Binance-related Perp DEXs include not only Aster but also StandX.

However, the market has doubts about StandX's "Binance identity": there is no YZI investment, and CZ has never mentioned it.

However, if the real purpose is just to target Hyperliquid's defensive battle, then before Hyperliquid poses a threat, StandX is likely to follow Aster's path.

Finally, regarding whether Binance has a racehorse mechanism, this is also everyone's suspicion about StandX.

However, today Probable officially announced obtaining YZI investment, confirming the racehorse mechanism.

This can also be understood as a defensive battle against Polymarket.

But personally, I believe whether it is defense or active attack still depends on how the market landscape evolves, and there are no constants.