On-chain data speaks for itself. The recent funding game surrounding ASTER looks like a fierce battle among whales in deep waters.

Here's what happened — an address holder made a tough decision, selling off 18.48 million ENA tokens to net $5.71 million. The funds weren’t scattered around; they were all invested in one place: AsterDex, aggressively buying ASTER. Once the news broke, the community exploded.

But the real heartbreak came later. Another large holder with 68 million ASTER tokens hid in 15 wallets and endured nearly 8 hours of holding, but ultimately couldn’t hold on. They sold 4.68 million ASTER at $0.71 each, losing a total of $4.5 million. Even more painful, their initial purchase cost was $1.66, and now the entire position’s unrealized loss has exceeded $64 million.

Why split into 15 wallets? Simply put, there are two reasons: first, to avoid triggering platform risk controls; second, to prevent market attention. But such dispersal exposes a fundamental issue — liquidity.

ASTER’s daily trading volume usually doesn’t exceed $10 million. For a large holder like this, trying to exit smoothly? Nearly impossible. It’s like a fully loaded truck trying to brake on ice — it just can’t stop.

Even more interesting, after a whale made $420,000 profit from closing a long position in ASTER, they immediately switched to shorting. This shift from long to short hints at a subtle change in market sentiment.