2.57 million ASTER tokens sold at a loss, large investors cut losses revealing the market segmentation dilemma

Trader 0x913c sold 25.7 million ASTER at $0.72 four hours ago on January 15, in exchange for $1.85 million. But behind this transaction is a heavy cost: about two months ago, he bought these tokens at an average price of $1.03, and now he is at a loss of $797,000, a decline of 30%. This large-scale cut reflects a situation of extreme market divergence.

ASTER’s Embarrassing Situation

The Contradiction Between Fundamentals and Price

From the news, ASTER has recently received several positive supports. Binance founder CZ publicly confirmed that he personally invested $2 million to buy ASTER and continues to add to his position, which is a solid vote of confidence. More importantly, ASTER DEX launched the “Long-term Buyback Bomb” plan on December 23 — using 80% of protocol revenue daily to buy back and burn ASTER, providing a steady daily buy support for the token.

However, the reality is that ASTER’s price performance has not been as strong as its fundamentals. From a high of $1.03 to the current $0.742, the decline is nearly 30%. Some investors even complain, “Since Bitcoin went from 88,000 to 92,000, other coins have risen quite a bit, but ASTER keeps falling.”

The True Reflection of Market Segmentation

This large loss transaction is actually a microcosm of market segmentation. According to monitoring data, market maker Wintermute reduced its ASTER holdings last week, while Hyperliquid has a large long position with an unrealized loss of $1.46 million, with a liquidation price approaching $0.621.

In other words, the market shows both big players like CZ who are optimistic and supported by protocol buybacks, and traders cutting losses at critical points, with market makers reducing positions. This coexistence of bulls and bears, and the divided confidence, precisely indicates that ASTER has not yet formed a market consensus.

Why Is This Situation Occurring

The Pressure of Time Cost

Trader 0x913c bought at $1.03 two months ago and sold at $0.72 now. During this process, he endured the consumption of time cost — two months of waiting, which resulted not in a rebound but in further decline. From a trading psychology perspective, cutting losses in such a situation is often forced: either the unrealized loss pressure is too great, or there are other capital needs.

The Dislocation Between Market Sentiment and Fundamentals

As a project launching in April 2025, ASTER has received backing from big players and protocol support, but market recognition still needs time to accumulate. The news mentions that “meme coins are driven by hype, while platform tokens are based on fundamentals” — ASTER clearly belongs to the latter, but this means its price increase will be relatively slow. During this process, short-term investors’ patience will gradually wear thin.

Current Key Support Levels

According to technical analysis in the news, ASTER has formed support in the $0.68–$0.72 range. Trader 0x913c’s sell price of $0.72 is exactly near this critical support, which may not be a coincidence — his choice to cut losses here also indicates the market’s attention to this price level.

From Hyperliquid data, the liquidation price of the largest long position is at $0.621, meaning if the price falls below $0.68, a chain reaction of liquidations could be triggered. Conversely, as long as the $0.68 level holds, there is a chance to stabilize the situation.

Summary

This loss-making transaction reflects ASTER’s current true state: fundamentals are supported, but market consensus has not yet formed. CZ’s increased holdings and protocol buybacks and burns are positive signals, but they need time to translate into price recognition. In this process, short-term investors cutting losses is almost unavoidable.

The key question is: can ASTER hold the $0.68 support and then wait for the next wave of recognition? This will determine whether the market can eventually diverge or not. For future observers, the performance in the $0.68–$0.72 range will be an important reference for judging the direction.