Key Takeaways
- Around 78 million ASTER tokens were burned just after midnight (UTC) on Friday morning.
- Another 78 million ASTER was locked away.
- Despite reducing its overall supply by 1%, the burn failed to boost ASTER’s price.
Upon completing a major buyback program, Aster burned around 78 million ASTER early Friday, equivalent to 1% of the total token supply.
Periodic buybacks and disposals are intended to dampen ASTER inflation, but the latest burn failed to prop up the token’s price.
Aster Completes Largest Token Burn Yet
Within weeks of Aster’s token generation event, which marked the conclusion of a merger between APX Finance and Astherus, the decentralized perpetual futures exchange started buying back tokens.
Since September, the platform has administered three buyback “seasons,” pulling more than 296 million ASTER from circulation in total.
Aster’s Season Three buyback—its largest yet—concluded with just shy of 156 million tokens.
Following a pattern established by previous seasons, half the tokens were burned, with the remainder set aside in two time-locked smart contract addresses for future airdrops.
Token Burn Fails To Catalyze a Rally
In theory, shrinking the overall ASTER supply by removing tokens from circulation should have a positive effect on its price.
In the initial hours following Aster’s S3 burn, the token experienced upward momentum, climbing from $1.02 to a high of $1.05.
However, the boost failed to materialize into a more sustained rally, and ASTER pulled back to around $1.04 just as quickly.
Amid broad market volatility, mixed signals make it especially difficult to predict where ASTER’s price will go next.
Of course, post-burn rallies aren’t always immediate.
Moreover, with ASTER burns falling into a cyclical pattern (Season Four is already underway), the market may begin to price token burns in advance.
The closest analogy is probably BNB, which also implements a periodic burn schedule, removing tokens from circulation every quarter.
Because BNB burns adhere to a strict timeline, they tend not to sway the market unless more tokens than expected are removed from circulation.
That being said, they still help support the price of BNB in the long run by reducing its overall supply.
Top Trending Crypto Articles
James Morales is CCN’s blockchain and crypto policy reporter. He has been working in the news media since 2020, writing about topics such as payments, banking and financial technology. These days, he likes to explore the latest blockchain innovations and the evolving landscape of global crypto regulation.
With an educational background in social anthropology and media studies, James uses his platform as a journalist to explore how new technologies work, why they matter and how they might shape our future.
