ASTER burns over 210M tokens – Why has its price stalled for 8 months?

The decentralized exchange [DEX] that was initially built on BNB Smart Chain, Aster DEX [ASTER], is back in the daily trends. Once again, the resurgence is due to its tokenomics and network activity.

Its mindshare surged by 28.56%, as seen in 4.19K engagements and mentions from top influencers. Will buybacks help the price escape multi-month sideways consolidation?

Platform fees feed into ASTER buybacks

Over the past two weeks, the platform has used 99% of the fees to buy back 2.721 million ASTER for stakers. An equal amount was burned from the team’s allocation, a total of 5.443 million tokens.

Since the perps DEX upgraded its tokenomics on June 17th, the cumulative burn has now exceeded 32.30 million coins. Now, the cumulative burn across all programs has surpassed 210 million ASTER.

This move looks to control the huge total supply of the token, which is at 7.78 billion after the 210 million permanent reduction.

Such numbers place ASTER up there with PancakeSwap [CAKE] when it comes to burn implementations in the DeFi sector.

What’s going on between whales and exchanges?

While burns are ongoing, a whale is consistently buying the token.

Over the past 24 hours, they accumulated 899.9K ASTER, worth $631K, from the Binance exchange. This transaction brought his total holdings to 2.90 million tokens, which he moved to a staking address.

Meanwhile, Binance moved 9 million ASTER worth $6.30 million to Aster_DEX’s deposit vault. That is, 30 million tokens costing $21 million in just one month following the same route every time.

These transactions could be for market-making, collateral, or an upcoming sale, but the chain transaction is yet to be confirmed. Only seeing what comes back to Binance would deduce what the transaction is all about.

Therefore, it shows strong network activity, especially from large investors and institutions.

What are the odds of ASTER breaking out?

On the charts, the altcoin has been ranging between $0.60 and $0.78 since early February. That is, seven months of stagnation.

Recently, it has been trading in a symmetrical triangle for the past two months within this range, but it could be nearing a breakout. The strength of sellers has greatly reduced, as seen in the MACD bars.

The small buys of 24.17K ASTER coins, as per the CVD indicator, show that bulls are slowly returning.

Therefore, ASTER needs to clear both the trendline and the horizontal resistance at $0.78 to be considered bullish. Otherwise, a move back to the support level at $0.60 cannot be overlooked.

Final Summary

• Aster DEX burned over 5.443 million tokens in the past two weeks as whales and the Binance exchange moved ASTER coins. 
• ASTER was trading in a symmetrical triangle inside a sideways range, and a reaction at the extreme levels could determine its next move.