What does a project need to break out of the industry’s conventional path? Perhaps the trust of top-tier investors, or innovative mechanism design. $ASTER seems to possess both — prompting the market to start discussing where its valuation ceiling might be.

First, let’s look at the underlying logic of support. A leading exchange founder has publicly confirmed that their holdings of ASTER exceed $2 million, and they continued to increase their position after disclosing this information. This is not just a simple statement of “being optimistic about a project,” but a strategic bet backed by industry-leading reputation and real capital. Such actions are usually based on in-depth project evaluation.

More importantly, the project itself launched a new mechanism on December 23. Since then, 80% of the platform’s daily total fees will be used for repurchasing and burning $ASTER tokens. This ratio is quite aggressive in the industry — meaning that the more frequent the trading activity, the greater the repurchase pressure, and the token supply is continuously compressed. Theoretically, this creates a self-reinforcing deflationary flywheel: trading volume generates fees, fees directly convert into buy orders, buy orders drive burning, and decreasing supply supports the price.

When the strategic layout of industry giants meets the protocol-level permanent buy mechanism, how much resonance can these two forces generate? The market is trying to find the answer. However, any investment decision requires independent thinking — data and mechanisms are just part of it, risk assessment is equally critical.