Binance Strikes Back: Building a New On-Chain Landscape with Alpha and Aster
By Joe Zhou, Foresight News
Original title: Binance reinvents two “small Binance”
Binance is building a kingdom of God on a chain.
It recreated two “little Binance”, one Alpha and one Aster. One of them focuses on “on-chain inventory” and the other focuses on “on-chain contracts.”
Binance's core business is contract and spot, and now it also needs to keep a close grip on the “on-chain spot and contract business.” Today, it has successfully found a way to play “on-chain” and has also begun to explore the “on-chain contract” business.
For a long time, “on-chain” attention was mainly occupied by Solana ecosystem projects, and “on-chain contracts” were mainly dominated by Hyperliquid, all of which directly threatened Binance's core business. Binance is facing competition between two new paradigms.
It is often not the old paradigm that can defeat the giants, but the new paradigm. Nokia, Intel, Yahoo, Motorola... too many companies that were invincible in the old paradigm are left behind in the transformation of the new paradigm. And the giants that have not been left behind continue to shine. In addition to QQ, Tencent also created WeChat, Alibaba invented Tmall in addition to Taobao, and now Binance is also building its own “little Binance.”
The contract business has always been Binance's most important and largest source of revenue. Hyperliquid's perpetual contract trading volume has surpassed Binance's 13%, and its derivatives holdings are even close to 30% of Binance's. It directly threatens the lifeblood of Binance.
The spot business is Binance's most important customer acquisition channel and is of great strategic importance. Solana, on the other hand, continues to grab the attention of crypto users. For a long time, almost all of the hot topics in the crypto world focused on Solana rather than Binance. A large number of users choose to trade on-chain on decentralized exchanges rather than on centralized exchanges. Binance's coin listing news has been regarded as a “reverse indicator” and a “peaking indicator” for a long time. This has made the Binance coin listing effect almost disappear.
Binance's two core businesses, contract and spot, have all been challenged by the on-chain world. This also made them decide to lay out “on-chain contracts” and “on-chain stocks.”
Alpha is the most important location for Binance to enter “on-chain stock.” Over the past six months, it has gained momentum and gradually occupied an important position in the Binance ecosystem.
The week of September 15 to September 21 is considered the “week of interest rate cuts.” During this week, Binance Alpha performed very well, with the launch of 10 tokens, 4 of which increased by more than 2 times, Aster's highest increase of 334%, and STBL's highest increase of 45 times. (Note: There are also four tokens that have almost returned to zero, so you need to be careful when investing)
Binance Alpha allows users with high points to receive free airdrops through trading volume. The benefits of airdrop tokens are very impressive. For example, Binance Alpha airdropped 4000 STBL tokens last week, and the value was as high as 2000 U in just three days. Meanwhile, the value of 1,667 MYX airdrops issued by Binance Alpha on May 6 has now soared to $15,669, reaching a maximum of $31673, which is equivalent to RMB 220,000.
“You experience Binance Alpha, Binance gives you a free car.”
This has also successfully attracted many crypto users back to the Binance ecosystem. However, the “Binance Alpha” product is not a charity; it also has its own drawbacks. When the market market falls, people who experience the “Binance Alpha” product need to bear losses if they misoperate it. However, those who can maintain discipline are often in the minority.
Behind the explosion of the “Binance Alpha” product, it represents a trend where the on-chain world has become mainstream in the crypto world at a pace that can be seen with the naked eye. Binance, OKX, Coinbase, Bybit, Bitget... almost all major exchanges already focus on wallet products. But very few actually escaped.
Previously, the Binance Wallet experience was criticized by users, and then the launch of “Binance Alpha” made Binance Wallet an instant hit. Binance has also found a “big brother” feeling in the on-chain world.
“Binance Alpha” has been in development for half a year, and some people are gradually approving its position as a “small on-chain spot Binance”; there are still many opinions about Aster, a project that has been issued for less than a week but FDV has reached 10 billion US dollars, and opinions are clearly divided.
Will the market need that many Perp DEX after Hyperliquid? What issues did Aster solve that Hyperliquid didn't? Is it reasonable for Aster's market capitalization to surpass Pump.fun, Arbitrum, and other projects that have accumulated over a long period of time and have actual transaction volume? All of this will take time to prove.
What is known, however, is that the advent of Hyperliquid may have caused centralized exchanges to panic even more than the advent of Solana, and also made them take it very seriously. Whether it's AVNT launched by Coinbase, Aster launched by Binance, or OKX's X Layer, they are actively developing the “on-chain contract exchange” circuit. CZ supported Aster by posting five tweets in a row, which is enough to show its weight.
The crypto exchange circuit is undergoing some qualitative changes. Exchanges have become more decentralized and it has become a definite trend.
Binance has launched two “Little Binance,” which means that Binance is no longer satisfied with being the leader of centralized cryptocurrency exchanges; it is striving to establish itself as the king of the decentralized chain world.
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