Aster rolls out discretionary buyback reserve, funneling up to 40% of daily fees into ASTER repurchases Aster has activated a new on-chain buyback reserve that channels between 20% and 40% of its daily platform fees into repurchasing ASTER tokens. The mechanism went live on January 19, and early transactions are already visible on-chain. This reserve supplements Aster’s existing Stage 5 buyback program, which launched in late December 2025 and performs automatic, fixed daily buybacks from a predetermined portion of fees. Together, the two mechanisms can divert as much as 80% of the protocol’s daily fees to ASTER repurchases — all executed on-chain and fully verifiable. Unlike Stage 5’s steady approach, the new reserve is discretionary and adaptive: allocations can shift anywhere within the 20%–40% band depending on liquidity, volatility and price action. Aster describes the activation as a “Strategic Buyback Reserve” that dynamically targets ASTER repurchases in response to market conditions while remaining tied to platform revenue rather than short-term price manipulation. Funding for the buybacks comes primarily from perpetual (perp) trading fees. Aster’s Shield Mode — a high-leverage feature that only charges fees on profitable trades — also contributes, with all Shield Mode revenues routed directly into ASTER repurchases. The protocol has already completed several prior buyback stages, repurchasing more than 209 million ASTER tokens (valued at over $140 million at the time of execution). Some of those tokens were burned; others were retained by the treasury for management purposes. Market context: ASTER has declined roughly 13% over the past 30 days, a move Aster attributes more to broad market pressure than to changes in its buyback framework. The team says the newly activated reserve is intended as a long-term, revenue-linked tool and expects the framework to run throughout 2026. What this means: By increasing on-chain, revenue-backed buybacks and adding a flexible reserve, Aster is beefing up token-supply management with mechanisms that are both responsive and transparent — potentially improving market confidence, while keeping its actions verifiable for on-chain observers. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

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