To be honest, looking at the trend of ASTER since January, those who chased the high have already suffered losses. The short-term surge and pullback have been validated, and the current risk is very clear—buying the dip will get you trapped.

ASHER is a multi-chain perpetual contract DEX that was formed by the merger of Astherus and APX Finance in September last year, boasting features like 1001x leverage and privacy orders. It looks flashy, but there are a bunch of fundamental concerns. The total token supply is 8 billion, with 2.5 billion in circulation (circulation rate around 31%), and a market cap in the range of $1.7-1.8 billion. It sounds substantial, but where are the problems?

The top six wallets hold 96% of the tokens, with one large whale controlling 44.7%. This high concentration makes it easy to manipulate the price. Even more concerning, DeFiLlama once removed its data after discovering that its trading volume completely coincided with that of a major exchange. Question marks over authenticity.

Unlocking pressure is also a long-term shadow—9600 million tokens will unlock in February 2026, and more will be released until 2035. This means there will be ongoing selling pressure in the long run. Looking at the entire 2026, aside from a potential phase of recovery in Q3, the rest of the time is basically low-level oscillation. The straightforward advice: avoid it altogether, there's no need to wade into this muddy water.