Key Highlights:
- Founder of Liquid Capital, Yi Lihua cut his losses on Aster DEX, after being unable to contact the project’s founder.
- Out of 6 projects, Aster was the only project that was bearing a huge loss.
- Yi is now focusing on Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Binance Coin, and WLFI in 2026.
Yi Lihua, the founder of Liquid Capital, said in a now-deleted tweet that he has decided to cut his losses on the Aster decentralized exchange project. In the post that he made, it was explained that he was not able to get in touch with Aster’s founder, which became a point of concern and led him to step away from the investment.
In the post, he even stated that he regrets how things turned out, and that his experience has pushed him to change his approach this time around. Moving ahead, he plans to focus only on well-known and more established cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH) and Binance Coin (BNB), and WLFI, which according to him believe carry lower risk when compared to newer or less transparent projects.
Yi lihua’s Portfolio Pivot: From Aster Loss to Core Asset Focus
All of this started when in November 2025, the founder warned the crypto community on X that the crypto market could see short-term dips if the US markets weakened.
Even so, his firm Trend Research continued to accumulate Ethereum as the price of the token moved higher. This strategy eventually helped them to build a massive holding of about 626,000 ETH at an average cost near $3,100. While the position, for a short period of time, showed an unrealized loss of around $110 million, it has recovered since then.
E 理华的 626,574 枚 $ETH 回本了！
补仓策略奏效 —— @Jackyi_ld 他们在 12.29 下跌当日补仓 46036.72 ETH，使得链上持仓平均成本降低至 ~$3,105.5，目前刚好收回 1.1 亿美元浮亏并来到了回本线，真 E 卫兵💂🏻♀️
本文由 #Gate 大门交易所 | @Gate_zh 赞助 https://t.co/bmr6ntmYfP pic.twitter.com/i5htz4kAJf
— Ai 姨 (@ai_9684xtpa) January 3, 2026
Yi made sure that his strategy is simple and focuses on a small group of high-conviction assets which included Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash for proof-of-work strength, Ethereum for public blockchain infrastructure, BNB and Aster as exchange-related tokens, and WLFI, linked to the USD1 stablecoin, for stability. By the end of 2025, out of six of these tokens, five of them were in profit.
Aster, somehow, stood out as the one token that experienced a significant amount of loss. The token plunged about 50% amid stalled development and since Yi could not reach the founder of the project, he cut his losses and removed Aster from his portfolio and called for a stronger, more credible exchange project to come in.
Moving forward, Yi remains bullish but he is now focused entirely on BTC, BCH, ETH, BNB and WLFI.
pow选BTC/BCH，公链选ETH，稳定币选WLFI，交易所选BNB，也期待新的一流交易所团队，一定大力投资支持
— JackYi (@Jackyi_ld) January 5, 2026
Aster’s Early Surge Fades as Volatility Sets In
Aster’s token had a great start and during the launch, the price of the token increased by almost ten times and hype around the project also surged. This rally was mainly driven by hype, high trading volumes, and strong initial interest.
However, this interest and the hype around the token started to fade and the price of the token also struggled to hold its gains and entered a period of sharp ups and downs.
From November onwards, the price trended lower, showing weakness in market confidence. By early 2026, Aster’s price was way below its peak level of $2.42 and it had also fallen under important support zones, indicating selling pressure.
This stood in clear contrast to the rest of Yi Lihua’s portfolio, where major assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum and BNB were either recovering or posting gains.
At press time, the price of the ASTER token stands at $0.7590 with an uptick of 0.82% in the last 24 hours as per CoinMarketCap. This price is 68.66% lesser than its all-time-high price of $2.42.
Now, with all of this going on, Yi’s decision to cut losses on Aster appears to be a risk-management move rather than a reaction to short-term price swings. It also explains as to why he chose to shift his focus on more stable and established cryptocurrencies.
Also Read: Aster Testnet Launches Today For 1K Selected Whitelist Users