The decentralized perpetual futures exchange Aster came into the spotlight after updating the tokenomics of its ASTER token. Following the news, the asset’s price surged sharply within a day, but then almost completely lost its gains.
On Wednesday, ASTER rose by more than 10% and reached around $0.80. This was the highest level since January.
The reason for the surge was the announcement of a new program under which Aster will direct 99% of the platform’s daily fees to automatically buy back tokens from the market.
Essentially, the mechanism resembles a stock buyback, where a company uses part of its revenue to reduce the number of shares in circulation.
All repurchased tokens will be distributed among veASTER holders. This token cannot be transferred to other users. It is received by ASTER holders who lock their coins in the protocol. In return, they get the right to participate in voting, a share of the platform’s revenue, and discounts on trading fees.
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Additionally, each buyback will be accompanied by burning the same amount of tokens from the protocol’s reserves. Burning is planned to take place every two weeks until the total supply is reduced to 3 billion ASTER.
Currently, about 7.82 billion tokens are in circulation.
The update also means abandoning the previous linear vesting model. Previously, new tokens were gradually released to the market regardless of demand. This program ended in January 2026.
Aster stated that the new model directly links platform activity to token holder rewards. However, the token was unable to hold its highs.
Just a few hours later, buyers began to take profits. Additional pressure on the market came from the results of the Fed meeting. After the regulator’s statements, the dollar strengthened and interest in risky assets noticeably decreased.
As a result, the ASTER rally quickly faded. At the time of publication, the token was trading around $0.68.
