ASTER (Aster) down 6.63% in the past 24 hours

Gate News Bot Message, December 19 — According to CoinMarketCap data at press time, ASTER (Aster) is currently priced at $0.67, down 6.63% in the past 24 hours, with a high of $0.98 and a low of $0.66. The 24-hour trading volume reached $359 million. The current market capitalization is approximately $1.66 billion, a decrease of $118 million from yesterday.

Aster is a new generation perpetual contract decentralized exchange, providing all traders with a non-custodial trading experience. The platform supports cross-chain trading without bridging or chain switching, allowing users to select the chain and place orders directly. Aster offers deep liquidity support, aggregating liquidity from multiple markets to support large trades, and is equipped with advanced trading tools such as hidden orders. Currently, the platform supports 45 trading pairs, with a total trading volume of $0.91 trillion, 1.9 million users, open positions worth $60 million, and total locked value of $30 million. Additionally, Aster supports US stock futures trading with leverage up to 100x, settled entirely in crypto assets.

Important recent news about ASTER:

1️⃣ Airdrop program continues to advance, deflationary mechanism strengthens long-term support
Aster is accelerating the release of subsequent airdrop plans and token economic optimization. The fourth phase of the airdrop ends on December 21. Users can choose to receive 50% of the reward immediately or wait until April 2026 for full unlock. Unclaimed portions will be burned, effectively reducing market liquidity impact. The fifth phase of the airdrop, “Crystal,” will start on December 22 and run for 6 weeks until February 1, 2026, distributing 1.2% of the total supply (about 96 million ASTER). It adopts a dual-track system of basic share and 3-month lock-up rewards; early claimers will have their locked portion burned, further enhancing the deflationary effect. The 235.2 million tokens unlocked for community and ecosystem have been transferred to designated addresses. The official has stated there are no spending plans, helping to alleviate market concerns about concentrated selling pressure.

2️⃣ Ecological product iteration releases differentiated competitive advantages
On December 15, Aster launched Shield Mode, a high-leverage trading feature supporting BTC and ETH trading pairs, with leverage up to 1001x. This mode uses a non-order book execution mechanism, with trades not visible on the public market, reducing front-running and sniper risks, while achieving zero slippage and zero Gas fees. During the trial operation before December 31, 2025, users in Shield Mode will not pay opening and closing fees. On December 11, Aster launched the Rocket Launch event, introducing two initial tokens, $CYS and $RAVE, with a prize pool exceeding $250,000. The RAVE/USD1 trading pair is exclusive to this platform. Within three hours of launch, on-chain trading volume exceeded $60 million, demonstrating the platform’s attractiveness and market engagement.

3️⃣ Advancement of proprietary blockchain development, infrastructure upgrades laying the foundation for long-term value
Aster is progressing with the development of its Layer-1 public chain, Aster Chain. The testnet is expected to go live by the end of December 2025, with the mainnet planned for Q1 2026. The initial version will not include staking or governance features; these modules are expected to be deployed gradually in Q2. The launch of its own blockchain will make ASTER tokens more closely tied to on-chain usage, fee collection, and validator incentives, strengthening the token’s value capture from the infrastructure layer. Meanwhile, the fourth phase of buybacks accelerated in early December, completing approximately $32 million in buybacks within 8 days, using about 90% of the fee income from this phase. The fee buyback policy indicates a long-term mechanism will be maintained.

4️⃣ Market liquidity and trading activity show divergence
According to market data on December 16, Aster ranked first among mainstream perpetual contract DEXs with a 24-hour trading volume of $9.27 billion, TVL of about $1.32 billion, and open contracts worth $2.5 billion, demonstrating ongoing liquidity competitiveness. However, recent on-chain whale activity reflects fluctuating market confidence. On December 17, a whale address sold 3 million ASTER at an average price of $0.78 after holding for two weeks, incurring a loss of $667,000, indicating short-term uncertainty. The short position ratio has risen above 58%, with short liquidations significantly exceeding longs, suggesting a bearish market structure.

In the short term, ASTER’s price faces challenges from technical pressure and on-chain selling pressure, but intensive airdrops, ecosystem development, infrastructure upgrades, and the platform’s competitive position provide fundamental support for medium-term recovery.

This message is not investment advice; please be aware of market volatility risks.