On-chain trading platform Aster is celebrating over 200,000 on-chain holders of its native token. This follows the launch of Shield Mode, a protected trading feature that allows users to execute high leverage perpetual trades without broadcasting their positions to the market.
200,000+ $ASTER on-chain holders 🎯
A new milestone. A growing community emerges. pic.twitter.com/bFamkFwA5Y
— Aster (@Aster_DEX) January 5, 2026
The decentralized perpetual exchange relayed this news to X, listing 200,642 on-chain holders as of today. This represents a daily increase of 0.24%, for a total of 24.9 million transfers. The platform’s multi-chain perpetual futures trading, which features up to 1001x leverage and MEV-free execution, drove this growth.
Aster extends shield mode to gold and silver pairs
Aster DEX further announced the expansion of sealed mode to XAUUSDT (gold) and XAGUSDT (silver) perpetual futures. This allows up to 100x leverage for on-chain trading of these products.
Shield mode has been expanded 🔥
XAUUSDT (Gold) • XAGUSDT (Silver) is currently exposed with up to 100x leverage.✨One-tap LONG/SHORT, immediate execution
✨ Orders away from public books
✨ Profit and loss sharing fee structure🗓 Trading hours:
– 5 days x 24 hours
– The market is closed on Saturday and Sunday… pic.twitter.com/9uwWHKK2r2— Aster (@Aster_DEX) January 5, 2026
Aster said Sealed Mode is a new pair that will continue to focus on privacy, including orders executed from a public ledger, one-tap long/short positions, instant execution, and a P&L sharing fee model. Trading is done live and in UTC 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Mid-last month, the platform introduced a sealed mode with up to 1,001x leverage on Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) pairs. As reported by Cryptopolitan, this mode allows for instant execution and zero slippage without placing orders on the public order book.
“Shield Mode reflects our belief that the future of on-chain trading is not just about leverage and speed, but also control, discretion, and protection.” Astor CEO Leonard said: “We are building a trading platform that allows traders to perform at the highest level without forcing their strategies onto the market.”
While this update draws attention to private high-leverage trading, it also highlights the risks, as the platform has seen past whale losses of over $35 million. Liquid Capital founder Yi Lihua also said in a tweet that he has chosen to abandon the Aster decentralized exchange project.
A since-deleted tweet revealed that Aster’s founder could not be reached. This made him anxious, so he withdrew from investing.
Source: via X
Still, Astor led the way in overall trading volume with approximately $38.8 billion in the past 24 hours. Hyperliquid follows with a trading volume of approximately $34.8 billion. However, the Hyperliquid platform’s open interest is much higher, currently at $81.7 billion compared to $26 billion for Asters.
Aster rises 10%, but technical indicators show bearish pressure
In addition to persistent volume, Aster continues to operate through strategic initiatives. The platform announced its fifth token buyback program in December. Aster Buyback and Burn covers up to 80% of daily fees.
Astor also released the first half of the 2026 roadmap. Plans include launching a layer 1 AsterChain mainnet. ASTER’s staking and on-chain governance plan has been developed. Fiat entrance/exit ramps are also being considered.
As a result, Astor started the year with a double-digit jump. The token gained 11.44% in the last week. Yesterday, Aster broke through the $0.78 resistance level, showing bullish momentum. This triggered a rally towards $0.91 to $1.39, analysts said.
However, technical indicators indicate that bearish pressure is waning, and failure to sustain the $0.78 level risks a retracement to $0.70-$0.75. Meanwhile, the token has remained steady with a modest increase of 0.07% over the past 24 hours, with the coin trading at 0.77.
