ASTER Dominates Weekly Token Unlocks With Massive $75.36M Release
Token unlocks just got a heavyweight contender—and the market's watching every move.
The Unlock Landscape Shifts
Projects schedule these releases like clockwork, flooding the market with previously restricted supply. Some see it as necessary protocol evolution; others brace for the inevitable sell pressure. This week, all eyes lock onto a single player.
A $75.36M Question Mark
That's the figure attached to ASTER's unlock. It's not just a number—it's a liquidity event that tests holder conviction and market depth simultaneously. Will it get absorbed, or will it drown the order books? The charts will tell the tale soon enough.
Beyond the Headline Hype
Major unlocks often serve as a brutal stress test. They separate robust tokenomics from cleverly disguised inflation. Smart money watches the volume and price action post-unlock—it's a clearer signal than any roadmap promise.
One cynical take? It's the crypto equivalent of a company issuing new shares—great for the treasury, often less so for the bagholder. This week, ASTER holders get to find out which side of that equation they're on.
Aster leads token unlocks with $75 million
Decentralized spot and perpetual trading exchange Aster will unlock 78.41 million ASTER tokens valued at $75.36 million. According to the data collected by aggregator CryptoRank, the release will take up 3.41% of the DEX token’s market capitalization, the largest unlock both in dollar terms and absolute token count for the week.
The unlock comes on the heels of the start of Aster’s Double Harvest incentive campaign, Phase 5, which also runs this week. According to the DEX’s official X account announcement published on Sunday, users must hold at least 444 ASTER continuously throughout the period to qualify.
Phase 5 rewards eligibility would require them to meet daily perpetual trading volume requirements in markets excluding bitcoin and Ether. Aster also revealed that Phase 4’s qualified participants reached 6,895 and unlocked a $1 million reward pool.
The rewards from the recently concluded program will reportedly be distributed to Aster Perpetual accounts within seven business days.
LayerZero and Arbitrum to add $57 million in upcoming release
LayerZero’s ZRO token ranks second among the week’s largest unlocks, with the cross-chain interoperability project scheduled to release 24.68 million ZRO tokens next Saturday. The unlocked amount is worth $37.42 million, which is 2.47% of the total token supply and almost 10.3% of its market valuation.
Arbitrum follows closely behind, with its ARB token scheduled for an unlock on Tuesday. The ethereum layer-2 network will release 92.63 million ARB tokens valued at $19.78 million, which is 0.93% of total supply and 1.65% of Arbitrum’s market capitalization.
Vana’s VANA token comes fourth with its December 16 release of 6.12 million tokens worth $17.41 million. Yooldo Esports will follow on the 19th with an unlock of 41.91 million ESPORTS tokens valued at $17.22 million.
The final two unlocks belong to stablecoin protocol STBL and Merlin Chain’s MERL token. STBL will unlock 288.39 million tokens, valued at $16.12 million. Although the dollar value is lower than several peers, the unlock is 57.7% of STBL’s market capitalization, the highest proportional release among the seven projects.
Merlin Chain is scheduled to unlock 36.14 million MERL tokens on the same day as Yooldo Esports. The release is valued at $16.11 million and will take the circulating supply to 1.72% of its total and about 3.32% of market capitalization.
Aster price seeks rebound after 3% weekly drop
ASTER’s price action has been on the red lane in the week leading to its much awaited unlock, shedding 3% of its values and trading at $0.93 at the time of this reporting. The token had surged to about $1.41 on November 19, then it entered a correctional phase that dragged it back to $0.88 by the start of December.
$ASTER
You can see what the MMs are drawing on the Aster chart. It looks like the two (LTF) distributions played a role in building this (MTF) accumulation.
There’s a lot of liquidity above, with a technical target at 0.988. The larger range could still form, but considering… https://t.co/wJoutABCfM pic.twitter.com/LkprJoOQPO
— Morja 🐸 (@Crankzzzzzz) December 15, 2025
On December 3, the DEX token bounced back toward the $0.94–$1.12 area, and traders have regularly defended the $0.92 region to keep the price from falling further toward the $0.85–$0.88 zone. At the same time, prices have stayed below $1.00 since they keep sliding down NEAR $0.97.
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