A new dispute has erupted between Star Xu and Changpeng Zhao, the founders of two leading cryptocurrency exchanges, Binance and OKX, over comments made by CZ about Hyperliquid (HYPE).
Firstly, CZ recently praised Hyperliquid’s technology in an interview, describing the platform as a significant innovation. However, he stated that Binance could not follow the same path because Hyperliquid operates without KYC controls and faces legal and regulatory risks.
Following CZ’s statements, OKX founder Star Xu criticized CZ in a social media post, questioning whether he was once again deceiving the public.
OKX founder Xu claims that Binance and CZ, despite being fully aware of the legal and regulatory risks, created a shell decentralized cryptocurrency exchange (DEX) called Aster (ASTER), which he describes as an almost exact copy of the Hyperliquid model.
Xu argued that Aster shared resources and personnel with the entire Binance ecosystem, including team members, and that CZ had supported the project numerous times. In this context, Xu claims that CZ is still working at Binance using Aster as a front.
Xu asked, “Creating a separate shell could be a way to ensure regulatory compliance. If the business model, resources, staff, and incentives are largely the same, what’s different?”
Following Xu’s statements, Binance Co-CEO He Yi announced that CZ has not been involved in the exchange’s operations since 2023.
He Yi added that CZ also advises Aster. Aster is a BNB-based project backed by YZi Labs, a venture capital firm affiliated with Binance.
*This is not investment advice.
