Trump and Binance crypto laundromat: how Aster DEX turned into a secret White House offshore for laundering billions through the USD1 stablecoin

From its launch last year, @Aster_DEX has carried a controversial reputation.

$ASTER hit the market at its absolute high. @cz_binance aggressively marketed it shortly before Binance caused a market downturn—and coinciding with the token’s listing on Binance Spot. They offloaded significant holdings while continuing to push the token to investors.

The $ASTER token is a completely useless BEP-20 token. It has no utility on the DEX platform, and over 90% of the supply is controlled by Binance. Meanwhile, some KOLs and VCs invested tiny amounts solely to hype the platform.

I’ve already detailed why $ASTER is a scam in previous articles:

- “CZ: Crypto’s biggest scammer”

- “A Market Saturated with Binance Scams: How it’s Shaping the Current Crypto Landscape”

If you want a deeper understanding of why $ASTER is a scam, read those.

In this article, I also explain how the DEX itself is a scam. Essentially, it’s a money-laundering mechanism disguised as a privacy-focused DEX.

As we all know, @cz_binance bought his way out with Trump through a presidential pardon and entered into a deal—effectively working with the Trump administration under that agreement.

The core of the deal: $2 billion was injected into Binance (based in the UAE) via Trump’s stablecoin USD1. These funds were staked and now generate roughly $80 million a year in staking rewards alone.

Other parts of the deal surfaced gradually, but now they are actively manifesting in the market. Trump’s family net worth grew from $2 billion to over $6 billion in just over a year of his presidency. This figure is even higher now and doesn’t include $4 billion in locked $WLFI tokens.

Trump is the most openly corrupt U.S. president in history, and he doesn’t care. He won’t be a “crypto president” forever, and crypto regulation (though still imperfect) is tightening, especially for CEXs. That’s why @Aster_DEX was created.

No sane trader would use Aster. The platform is dominated by wash trading, has atrocious liquidity across almost all pairs, and openly deceives traders through wikis that exist only on their exchange. Almost all serious traders stick to Hyperliquid—which is the exact opposite of Aster in every way (in a good way).

Aster was originally created as a DEX to circumvent regulations that CEXs must follow. Second, the entire “privacy” angle is laughable—@binance is literally the most centralized entity in crypto. If Binance suddenly starts pushing “privacy,” your spider sense should scream immediately.

Binance clearly owns @Aster_DEX, but @cz_binance cannot officially appear on the project. The team is made up of former Binance employees, and the CEO, Leonard, is largely inactive—a puppet figure.

The DEX started with a mix of stablecoins but recently announced that only USD1 will be used for TradFi perpetual markets. Curious why? Who do you think controls TradFi deals through their actions and statements? Correct—you know the corrupt orange guy in the White House.

Trump insiders can now trade indices, metals, oil, and more on @Aster_DEX, settling in their own stablecoin. Not only that, they do this without hitting the radar of Hyperliquid, where large positions were previously opened a day before Trump announcements.

For @cz_binance and the entire @binance cartel, this opens dozens of other money-laundering channels. Large transactions between Aster and Binance platforms are routinely observed.

Criminal transactions can easily be routed through Aster’s “Shield mode” and privacy chain, fully hidden from public monitoring.

The largest and most centralized entity in crypto didn’t come here to protect your privacy. Think twice before using their products or investing in their tokens.