Assessing what’s next after Aster’s $140M inflows, 20% rally spark bullish bets

Key Takeaways

Why are traders turning bullish on ASTER?

Funding Rates flipped positive at 0.007%, showing a long-heavy bias as TVL climbed to $2.18 billion.

Will ASTER’s momentum continue?

Resistance near $1.8 remains the hurdle—if bulls clear it, the rally could extend in the short term.

Decentralized perpetual exchange Aster [ASTER] regained investor confidence as it finalized plans for an airdrop rollout.

The effect has been positive for its price performance, with 4% of its native token allocated for the airdrop. Following this announcement, the token rallied 20% at the start of the day, while capital inflows remained strong.

Whether this trend will lead to a sustained bullish outcome for ASTER remains to be seen, but market analysis offers potential directions.

On-chain liquidity on the rise

There has been a noticeable increase in on-chain liquidity as the market continued to regain confidence.

Aster’s Total Value Locked (TVL), which measures the level of interest among on-chain investors in an asset, rose by $141 million in the past day to reclaim $2.16 billion.

Source: DeFiLlama

This surge was accompanied by a significant increase in trading activity, as decentralized exchange (DEX) Volumes reached $262 million in the last 24 hours. This indicated that investors were actively accumulating more ASTER.

Over the past seven days, total volume reached $2.24 billion, according to recent data.

However, there has been a shift—Aster’s perpetual exchange has yet to reclaim a spot among the top 15 perpetual protocols with high liquidity levels in the market.

Retailers’ bullish fever for ASTER

Retail investor activity on centralized exchanges provided a more detailed view of the market conditions.

Data from CoinGlass indicated that retail traders placed more long positions than short on ASTER in the past day.

This trend is reflected in the Open Interest Weighted Funding Rate, which turned positive at 0.0072% after staying negative for two consecutive days.

Source: CoinGlass

An observation of the Relative Strength Index (RSI) chart showed that it has also reclaimed the positive level after remaining neutral for about four days.

Whenever the RSI enters a positive zone, it typically signals that bullish momentum is strengthening, potentially allowing prices to move higher on the chart.

Resistance ahead despite optimism

Despite the growing bullish sentiment, the momentum building around ASTER does not guarantee a straightforward rally. ASTER now faces a resistance zone marked by dense supply clusters around the $1.75–$1.80 range.

Source: TradingView

A rejection there could stall the recovery and pull prices back if momentum fades.

Still, market tone remains constructive, supported by $1.44 trading levels and sustained on-chain engagement.