Aster popped over 10% on radical 'buyback and burn' upgrade. But gains were short-lived

Decentralized perpetuals-dedicated exchange Aster's native token ASTER popped and dropped sharply in 24 hours as protocol-focused bullish news ran into a hawkish Fed meeting and broader market weakness.

ASTER jumped over 10% to 80 cents on Wednesday hitting the highest level since January, according to CoinDesk Data, following the protocol's announcement of a new initiative under which it commits 99% of daily platform fees to an automated buyback program. Think of it as using your firm's revenue to buy back shares in your own company.

The announcement added that all tokens purchased through this mechanism are distributed as rewards to veASTER holders. veASTER is a non-transferable governance and reward token obtained by locking native ASTER tokens, granting holders platform fee revenue, voting power, and trading discounts on the Aster DEX.

Every buyback triggers an equal burn from the protocol’s reserve to further reduce supply. These bi-weekly burns will continue until the total supply reaches a target of 3 billion tokens. As of now, ASTER's total supply is 7.82 billion tokens.

The upgrade marks a shift away from the protocol's previous linear vesting model, in which tokens were auto-released to market regardless of demand, and it concluded earlier this year, in January 2026.

"Aster's tokenomics upgrade puts the platform's own activity to work," the protocol noted, highlighting that the new rewards are settled on-chain with "no discretionary reserve."

The token's bullish price action, however, was short-lived as the Federal Reserve's hawkish turn sent the dollar higher and weighed on risk assets, including cryptocurrencies.

As of writing, ASTER traded near 68 cents, down 5% on the day.