Recently, Bitcoin experienced a extreme plunge against the USD1 trading pair—dropping from $87,600 straight down to $24,100 within seconds. At first glance, it’s shocking, but a closer look reveals that the underlying issues are far more worth pondering than just a flash crash.

Simply put, USD1 is an obscure stablecoin with severely insufficient trading depth and a scarcity of active market makers. A large order hits the market, and the entire buy-side gets wiped out. This is not an isolated case but a reflection of the current crypto market—liquidity is highly concentrated.

Look at it this way: most trading volume is concentrated on mainstream pairs like Bitcoin and Ethereum. What about other projects? They can only rely on speculative funds to barely sustain themselves. Once the sentiment shifts and funds withdraw, extreme volatility becomes inevitable. This is an old problem, but no one has ever fully solved it.

However, the collaboration between ASTER and SBI Holdings takes a different approach. They don’t plan to mine liquidity within the crypto space; instead, they are turning their attention to traditional finance. The Japanese financial market is substantial, and SBI Holdings has been deeply rooted in Japan for years, with established client resources and channels. By partnering to launch a Japanese Yen stablecoin, they are essentially doing one thing—bringing in incremental capital from traditional finance.

What does this mean? ASTER no longer has to rely on speculators in the crypto space to support the market. The stability and scale of the traditional financial system directly serve as a liquidity backstop.

There’s an even more critical point. Many crypto projects suffer from the common problem of “just speculation and no real use case,” but the Japanese Yen stablecoin is different; it has tangible real-world scenarios. Cross-border payments, trade settlements, international remittances—these are genuine business needs. Real-world applications can generate continuous transaction flows and attract more institutional participation.

From this perspective, it’s not just about solving liquidity issues but about reshaping the fundamental value of crypto assets. By integrating the credit and use cases of traditional finance, liquidity naturally becomes less of a concern.