OKX founder calls Binance's Aster a 'copycat' of Hyperliquid

OKX founder Star Xu criticized Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) on X, questioning if he was deceiving the public again. Xu claimed that Binance has created a shell decentralized cryptocurrency exchange (DEX) called Aster (ASTER), which he described as a near-exact copy of the Hyperliquid model, despite being fully aware of the legal and regulatory risks. He argued that Aster shares significant resources with the Binance ecosystem, including team members, and that CZ himself has promoted the project on multiple occasions. "Creating a separate shell might be their way of ensuring regulatory compliance," Xu said, questioning, "If the business model, resources, personnel, and incentives are largely the same, what is actually different?" This follows a recent podcast where Changpeng Zhao stated that while Hyperliquid is a "great invention," Binance would not directly copy its model for compliance reasons.