Trump’s CZ Pardon Ignites 15% Aster Rally as Rewards Campaign Fuels Momentum
Introduction: A Surge of Confidence in Aster
The cryptocurrency market witnessed a significant bullish movement on October 23, 2025, as the price of Aster (ASTER) surged 15% to trade at $1.14. This rally was directly catalyzed by two concurrent events: a full presidential pardon for former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao and the launch of a substantial trading rewards campaign on the Aster decentralized exchange. The immediate aftermath saw a dramatic increase in trading activity and open interest, signaling a rapid return of trader confidence. While the token remains significantly below its all-time high, the short-term sentiment has decisively shifted positive, marking a pivotal moment for the CZ-backed project.
The Catalysts: Unpacking the Dual Drivers of the Rally
The 15% price increase in Aster was not a random market fluctuation but a direct response to two powerful, simultaneous announcements.
Trump’s Pardon of CZ: A Watershed Moment for Market Sentiment
On October 23, President Donald Trump issued a full pardon to Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, reversing his 2023 conviction for anti-money laundering offenses. The White House characterized the decision as putting an end to the “war on cryptocurrency by the Biden Administration.” CZ had served a four-month prison sentence in 2024. This pardon is widely seen as removing a major overhang on the crypto industry that had persisted since his conviction, effectively closing a chapter that many investors felt created regulatory uncertainty and negative sentiment.
Following his legal troubles, CZ shifted his focus to Aster, a decentralized perpetual futures exchange backed by YZi Labs, his family office. It is crucial to note that Aster is not affiliated with Binance. However, it has become CZ’s new flagship venture and his publicly stated preferred trading platform. The pardon, therefore, was interpreted by the market as a significant de-risking event for CZ’s primary current business endeavor, directly benefiting Aster’s perceived stability and future prospects.
Aster’s “Rocket Launch” Campaign: Fueling Trading Activity
Announced on the same day as the pardon, Aster’s “Rocket Launch” campaign provided a tangible incentive for traders to engage with the platform. This initiative is designed to reward users with $200,000 worth of ASTER and AT tokens for participating in spot and perpetual markets. The campaign’s first featured partner is APRO Oracle, an early-stage data provider for real-world assets (RWA), artificial intelligence (AI), and decentralized finance (DeFi) projects.
According to the official announcement from Aster’s Twitter account, Rocket Launch is “designed to provide liquidity support for early-stage projects while giving users early access to emerging on-chain opportunities.” To participate, users must trade at least $1,000 in AT/USDT volume and maintain a balance of 100 ASTER tokens throughout the event, which runs from October 24 to November 6, 2025. This campaign directly incentivizes both trading volume and token holding, creating immediate buy-side pressure and locking in liquidity.
Market Data Reflects Renewed Trader Confidence
The impact of these developments was immediately visible in Aster’s market data, providing concrete evidence of shifting sentiment.
Aster’s 24-hour trading volume jumped 13% to $833.7 million. More notably, data from CoinGlass shows that derivatives volume climbed 10.56% to $2.16 billion, while open interest increased by 3.78% to $482 million. An increase in open interest alongside a rising price typically indicates that new money is entering the market and establishing new positions, reflecting strengthened conviction among traders. This data points to an uptick in speculative positioning and renewed confidence in Aster’s short-term trajectory.
Aster Token Price Technical Analysis: Mapping the Path Forward
From a technical perspective, ASTER demonstrated a clear recovery pattern. The token rebounded from a weekly low of $0.95 and consolidated around the $1.14 level on the hourly chart.
The price action reclaimed the middle Bollinger Band, indicating stabilizing momentum after a period of decline. The upper Bollinger Band at $1.16 now acts as immediate resistance, while the lower band near $0.99 serves as key support.
Momentum indicators provide a mixed but leaning-positive picture. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) sits at 65, showing increasing bullish momentum but approaching overbought territory. However, short-term indicators like the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) and Exponential Moving Averages (EMA 10, 20, 30) remain in sell territory. This suggests that while momentum is building, the rally could encounter resistance if trading volume declines.
For traders, these levels define the near-term scenarios:
- A confirmed breakout—specifically a hourly close above the $1.16 resistance—could signal a move toward targets in the $1.25 to $1.30 range.
- Conversely, a failure to hold support at $1.08 could trigger a pullback toward the $0.98 level.
Contextualizing the Rally: Aster’s Position in the Broader Market
Despite the encouraging 15% gain, it is important to view this rally within its broader context. At its current price of $1.14, Aster remains down 10% over the past week and is still trading 52% below its all-time high of $2.41, which was recorded on September 24.
This illustrates that while the recent news has provided a strong short-term catalyst, the token is still in a recovery phase from previous losses. The surge in volume and open interest suggests that market participants see this event combination as a potential inflection point, but sustained momentum will be required to challenge higher price levels.
Strategic Conclusion: A Pivotal Moment for Aster
The events of October 23 represent a pivotal moment for the Aster project. The presidential pardon for CZ removed a significant cloud of regulatory uncertainty associated with its most prominent backer, while the “Rocket Launch” campaign created immediate utility and demand for the ASTER token. The resultant 15% price surge and double-digit percentage increases in trading volume and open interest are quantifiable validations of this positive shift in market sentiment.
For crypto readers and investors, the key takeaways are clear: regulatory developments remain powerful price drivers, and well-structured incentive campaigns can effectively catalyze market activity. The alignment of a major macro-legal event with a targeted micro-economic incentive proved particularly potent for Aster.
Looking ahead, market participants should monitor two critical factors:
- Sustained Volume: Whether the elevated trading volumes and open interest can persist beyond the initial news cycle and throughout the duration of the rewards campaign.
- Technical Levels: The token’s ability to break through and hold above key resistance at $1.16 or its failure to maintain support at $1.08.
The coming days will reveal if this rally marks the beginning of a longer-term reversal for Aster or a short-lived bullish episode. The project has successfully seized an opportunity to regain market attention; its challenge now is to convert this momentum into sustained growth.