After Aster surged 1900%, analysts revealed the "perfect get on board point" and hidden risks.

Aster is widely regarded as the biggest competitor to Hyperliquid, capturing headlines across major media outlets after gaining public support from CEX. Aster's stock price skyrocketed by 1900% in just five days, listing at $0.10 on September 17 and reaching an all-time high of $21.97 on Sunday. Its market capitalization peaked at $3.26 billion, with a Fully Diluted Valuation of $15.77 billion. In the face of such astonishing gains, should investors get on board immediately or wait for a pullback?

CEX's Secret Weapon: How Aster Challenges Hyperliquid's Dominance

Aster is the latest hybrid CEX-DEX trading platform, widely regarded as the CEX's response to Hyperliquid. The Hyperliquid DEX trading model, similar to CEX, is seen as a serious threat to centralized platforms. As investors flock in, Hyperliquid's nearly instant execution, deep liquidity, ultra-low fees, and permissionless high-leverage trading model have attracted numerous investors, leading major media to begin calling Hyperliquid the killer of CEX.

Today, investors view Aster as CEX's response to Hyperliquid. Aster is supported and incubated by YZi Labs, and it was formed by the merger of APX Finance (formerly ApolloX) and Astherus at the end of 2024.

APX brings advanced perpetual contract trading, while Astherus contributes products focused on yield and liquidity.

Aster's Core Competitive Advantages

After the name change, Aster launched spot trading and perpetual contracts, offering two trading models:

Simple mode: Features one-click trading on-chain with up to 1001x leverage.

Professional Mode: Equipped with order book tools, hidden orders, and low fees.

Investors can even trade U.S. stocks with leverage of up to 100 times.

Aster indeed has key advantages over Hyperliquid, including a maximum leverage of 1001 times (compared to Hyperliquid's 40 times), support for hidden orders that protect large transactions, and the addition of a spot market in addition to perpetual contracts.

It is no surprise that its trading volume has exceeded $525 billion, with over 2 million users. With CEX big shots publicly supporting the exchange, this has also greatly boosted its token price.

Investment Risk Alert: Aster's Centralized Tokenomics

Despite the explosive growth triggered by the launch of Aster and the rapid adoption of its DEX, the fundamentals of the project have raised concerns.

For example, 88.25% of the token supply is held by only 4 wallets, all controlled by a SafeProxy multi-signature wallet. Theoretically, the development team can sell off their held tokens at any time, which poses a significant risk to investors.

Analyst StarPlatinum emphasized that 5 wallets control 93.5% of the token supply, with just one wallet controlling 44.7% of all tokens.

In addition, Aster has a maximum supply of 8 billion tokens, which stands in stark contrast to Hyperliquid's 1 billion tokens. From the perspective of scarcity, Hyperliquid has stronger long-term investment potential.

Technical Analysis: Buy Now or Wait for a Pullback?

(Source: Trading View)

The risk-reward ratio is no longer favorable for off-market investors hoping to buy at the current price.

The price of Aster has re-tested the upward trend line of the parallel wedge, as well as the typical bearish ascending narrow wedge. Therefore, it may soon re-test the support level of $1.70, and a break below that support could push the price down to $1.50 and below.

In addition, ASTER has also formed a bearish divergence on the hourly chart, further confirming the strong selling pressure.

It is worth noting that Aster is being compared with Hyperliquid. However, the price of HYPER has pumped 17.5 times in 20 days, followed by a 70% pullback. At the same time, ASTER has already pumped nearly 20 times in just 5 days, indicating a possible significant sell-off ahead.

Investment Strategy: Best Get on Board Points Recommended by Experts

Renowned analysts remain bullish on Aster's price predictions, with key price targets of $4 in the medium term and $10 in the long term. However, cautious investors may wait for a better get on board opportunity.

Based on technical analysis and historical patterns, investors may consider the following strategies:

Be patient and wait for a pullback: consider getting on board when the price pulls back to the range of 1.70-2.00 dollars.

Buy in batches: Do not invest all your funds at once, but buy in batches at different price points.

Set stop loss: No matter when you get on board, you must set a strict stop loss to protect your capital.

Pay attention to token unlocks: closely monitor the token unlocks of large holders and the potential selling pressure.

For long-term investors, Aster's technological innovations and CZ's support may make it a valuable investment, but the current price may have already over-reflected these factors. Waiting for a better get on board point may be a wiser strategy.