Aster remains one of the most undervalued DEX and privacy coins, with a bottomed-out chart ready to run back to previous all-time highs. It still generates over $200K a day in revenue, which should grow in a good market. Its dark pools make it the only DEX where traders can size perps without getting hunted, it is backed by Binance, and it lists attention tokens faster than anyone. x.com 

A deeper, more liquid perpetual-futures market should expand Ethena's USDe funding reserves, making StablecoinX the best risk/reward way to gain exposure to securities tokenization and growing perps. ICE and trade[XYZ] plan a dedicated U.S. market, subject to CFTC approval. StablecoinX's updated fully diluted NAV is $20.41 versus a $9.15 share price, a 55% discount. x.com  x.com  x.com 

Aster looks like a BNB special: it would be about 70% lower if CZ were not burning cash to keep it propped up for vanity reasons. x.com 

Tokens that fund buybacks from revenue gained another reason to catch a bid after SEC staff said buybacks alone don't make an otherwise non-security token a security once its protocol is live. More usage can mean more fees for buybacks: Hyperliquid fees buy HYPE, Raydium swap fees buy RAY, and Pump, Jupiter, PancakeSwap, Aster, NEAR, Pendle, Maple and Sky do similar. Uniswap burns UNI from pool fees; Lido's DAO buys LDO by accumulation. Buybacks must be big relative to market cap and new supply. … Show more

Aster is a bet on CZ's ego rather than on the DEX itself, and the ego of crypto's richest man isn't priced in at all. x.com 

Aster's token supply overhang sank it, and its fixes come too late. ASTER is down 75% from its high even though it once beat Hyperliquid in trading volume; Hyperliquid had 5x more open interest. Only 32% of its 8B max supply is unlocked. Aster has cut emissions by 97% and started buybacks, the right move but too late. x.com 

Bear-market conditions make category-leading tokens with cash flow, real usage and macro relevance worth accumulating in stages. Bitcoin has flushed to $58-61k near its 200-week average, fear sits at 17, and stress at treasury firms like Strategy signals late-downtrend selling, though a Fed without 2026 cuts rules out a V-shaped recovery. Favored: buyback or burn tokens HYPE, ASTER, JUP, SKY, UNI and PUMP; fee-sharing AAVE, MET and PENDLE; ETH as the core; TAO and VIRTUAL for AI; ONDO for RWAs. … Show more

Hyperliquid is among the crypto projects proving that real revenue used for buybacks and burns drives the best long-term performance. Tokens without revenue, or whose buybacks do not offset emissions and unlocks, are inflationary assets relying on sentiment. Projects with revenue and value accrual, including Hyperliquid and GEODNET, held up surprisingly well through the bear market. x.com  x.com  x.com 

Aster's ceiling looks low because its rival Hyperliquid has captured TradFi and real-world assets, leaving Aster to bet on small-cap, high-volatility crypto. That is a self-downgrade: this cycle has had no broad altseason, and even future 10x or 100x hot spots tend to draw one-wave capital and users with poor stickiness, as with NFTs and inscriptions. Even with Binance and CZ as a floor, the gap with the leader will likely widen, and its founder seems to lack confidence. x.com  x.com 

Arbitrum looks bottomed and could rally 3–4x on a mean reversion. Between Hyperliquid and Robinhood Chain choosing it, Arbitrum is a clear winner among Ethereum layer-2s to build on. ARB looks bottomed against BTC and ETH, is closer to full circulation than peers, and sits at a $550M market cap after topping $3B in a weak August 2025 pump; even an echo pump would take it to about $2B. It is a governance token with zero value accrual, though, and supply unlocks remain. x.com