How and Where to Buy Altered State Token (ASTO) – Detailed Guide

What is ASTO?

Altered State Machine (ASM) is a decentralised protocol for Non-Fungible Intelligence (NFI) - bringing users and developers the ability to create, own, trade, and train AI agent via NFTs, to power up the metaverse.

ASM AI Agents can be comprised of two NFTs, a Brain NFT and a Form. ASM Brains are the core of an AI Agent and each contrain a unique Genome Matrix; a set of intrinsic base values that determine the inherent abilities of a Brain. When trained, ASM Brains will also have Memories, behavioural strategies the Agent has learned via Machine Learning in Artificial Intelligence Gyms.

The Form is an optional layer for each AI Agent which can be a visual (or otherwise) representation of your AI Agent. Forms can be NFTs, such as traditional 2D or 3D art or character NFTs, Aural experiences, a unique identifier, or a Voice Agent. The Form of an Agent can be upgraded, traded, or replaced, allowing nearly unlimited flexibility in the creation of Agents for different execution environments or use cases.

With ASM, you can create, compete, and interact with AI Agents across many worlds, such as gaming, financial applications, and multimedia experiences.

AIFA (Artificial Intelligence Football Association) is the first use-case for the Altered State Machine Protocol and AI Agents; a fully decentralized play-to-earn game powered by AI Agents and fully rigged, 3D All-Star Characters.
Brains will be trained to develop skills and strategies as a team through Machine Learning, in our Intelligence Mining environments known as Artificial Intelligence Gyms. Teams of 4 All-Stars containing their trained-up ASM Brains will then compete against each other in AIFA Arenas to win games or Leagues and earn ASTO.

With ASM anyone can create new Agents, or use ASM to give your existing NFT a Brain.

What is the Altered State Token (ASTO)?

Altered State Token (ASTO), an ERC-20 token, is the native utility token for the Altered State Machine ecosystem.

The main purpose of ASTO is to provide utility within the ASM ecosystem, including accessing the ASM network, creating and training Agents, inter-Agent transactions, participating in events such as Genome Mining, play-to-earn games, and more. ASTO will be utilized across the protocol to enable access and provide rewards to participants, users, creators and developers in each project and ecosystem use-case.

Anyone who is an ASTO holder will be able to join the ElderDAO when it is established, a community lead DAO currently being developed by ASM. The token-holding community will create and guide the future of ASM, using ASTO to manage and grow the ASM ecosystem over time. ASTO will also be used to fund other projects emerging in the ecosystem, at discretion of the ElderDAO.

Who are the Founders of Altered State Machine?

Altered State Machine was co-founded in 2021 by David McDonald, Aaron McDonald, Hal Smith Stevens, and Phil Williams.

David McDonald is the CEO of ASM. Before founding ASM, David has worked in geospatial and IOT then progressing into Blockchain. His notable successes including the world's first national primary industries blockchain consortium, spanning the entire value chain from government to consumer.

Aaron McDonald is the Chairman of ASM and is a cofounder, board member, and director of Centrality, one of NZ’s fastest growing technology companies. In 2019, Aaron was named Ernst & Young EY Technology Entrepreneur of the Year. Prior to Centrality, his career includes 20 years in technology as an engineer, product developer, and business leader with portfolios worth over $1b. He is notable for his time at Vodafone, implementing critical technology programs for the NZ arm of the global telecoms giant.

Hal Smith Stevens is the CTO of ASM and is a lifelong software engineer, providing technology leadership and vision through a strong background of bootstrapping start ups and nurturing innovation. Some of Hal's many projects include a platform that leverages AI to improve the UX for patients in the US healthcare market; and another that pioneers the next generation of air traffic control across Australasia, opening the door to drone deliveries in low level airspace and supersonic business jets in the stratosphere.

Phil Williams is the Chief Design Officer of ASM and is a veteran creative director and technology strategist with deep knowledge and experience across a range of industries. He has led product teams at publicly listed technology companies (Orion Health), global digital agencies (Saatchi & Saatchi, Sapient Nitro) and founded his own startups. He's held senior roles in Digital Art Direction, Product Direction, Technology Investment Analysis, Human Centered Design & Product Development, and Innovation Programme Leadership.

How can I get ASTO?

Upon token launch, the majority of circulating ASTO will initially be airdropped into the hands of Genesis Brain NFT holders.

ASM will be hosting the ASTO Discovery Auction, a modified version of Delphi’s Liquidity Bootstrap Auction, to ensure liquidity for the ASTO token as it launches. At the conclusion of this price discovery event, ASTO will be given in the form of Liquidity Provider rewards (and later, a distribution of LP tokens) to participants. ASTO will then become available on DEX (Uniswap), and later on CEX (CEX TBC) for trading.

Altered State Machine’s first use-case for AI Agents and Artificial Intelligence Gyms, AIFA, will comprise of unique GameFi mechanics where players will be able to earn ASTO by competing and winning games or Leagues with their All-Star teams. Holders of AIFA All-Star NFTs, too, will be rewarded with a unique amount of ASTO in a Reverse Claim Airdrop, where holders will accrue more ASTO the longer they hold the All-Star in their wallets.

ASTO was first tradable on 30th Mar, 2022. It has a total supply of 2,384,000,000. As of right now ASTO has a market capitalization of USD $207,191,381.77. The current price of ASTO is $0.0869 and is ranked 2466 on Coinmarketcap and has recently surged 38.34 percent at the time of writing.

ASTO has been listed on a number of crypto exchanges, unlike other main cryptocurrencies, it cannot be directly purchased with fiats money. However, You can still easily buy this coin by first buying USDT from any fiat-to-crypto exchanges and then transfer to the exchange that offers to trade this coin, in this guide article we will walk you through in detail the steps to buy ASTO.

Step 1: Register on Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange

You will have to first buy one of the major cryptocurrencies, in this case, USDT (USDT). In this article we will walk you through in details two of the most commonly-used fiat-to-crypto exchanges, Uphold.com and Coinbase. Both exchanges have their own fee policies and other features that we will go through in detail. It is recommended that you try both of them and figure out the one that suits you best.

uphold

Suitable for US traders

Select Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange for details:

ASTO

Being one of the most popular and convenient fiat-to-crypto exchanges, UpHold has the following advantages:

  • Easy to buy and trade among multiple assets, more than 50 and still adding
  • Currently more than 7M users worldwide
  • You can apply for UpHold Debit card where you can spend the crypto assets on your account like a normal debit card! (US only but will be in the UK later)
  • Easy to use mobile app where you can withdraw fund to a bank or any other altcoin exchanges easily
  • No hidden fees and any other account fees
  • There are limited buy/sell orders for more advanced users
  • You can easily set up recurring deposits for Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) if you intend to hold cryptos long term
  • USDT, which is one of the most popular USD-backed stablecoins (basically a crypto that is backed by real fiat money so they are less volatile and can be treated almost as the fiat money it's pegged with) is available, this is more convenient if the altcoin you intend to buy has only USDT trading pairs on the altcoin exchange so you don't have to go through another currency conversion while you buy the altcoin.
Show Details Steps ▾
ASTO

Type your email and click 'Next'. Make sure you provide your real name as UpHold will need it for account and identity verification. Choose a strong password so that your account isn't vulnerable to hackers.

ASTO

You will receive a confirmation email. Open it and click on the link within. You will then be required to provide a valid mobile number to set up two-factor authentication (2FA), it is an extra layer to the security of your account and it is highly recommended that you keep this feature turned on.

ASTO

Follow the next step to finish your identity verification. These steps are a bit daunting especially when you are waiting to buy an asset but just like any other financial institutions, UpHold is regulated in most countries such as the US, the UK and the EU. You can take this as a trade-off to using a trusted platform to make your first crypto purchase. Good news is that the whole so-called Know-Your-Customers (KYC) process is now fully automated and it shouldn't take more than 15 minutes to finish.

Step 2: Buy USDT with fiat money

ASTO

Once you finished the KYC process. You will be asked to add a payment method. Here you can either choose to provide a credit/debit card or use a bank transfer. You may be charged higher fees depending on your credit card company and the volatile prices when using cards but you will also make an instant purchase. While a bank transfer will be cheaper but slower, depending on the country of your residence, some countries will offer instant cash deposit with low fees.

ASTO

Now you are all set, on the 'Transact' screen under the 'From' field, select your fiat currency, and then on the 'To' field choose USDT, click preview to review your transaction and the click confirm if everything looks good... and congrats! You've just made your first crypto purchase.

Step 3: Transfer USDT to an Altcoin Exchange

ASTO

But we are not done yet, since ASTO is an altcoin we need to transfer our USDT to an exchange that ASTO can be traded, here we will use Gate.io as our exchange. Gate.io is a popular exchange to trade altcoins and it has a large number of tradable altcoins pairs. Use the link below to register your new account.

Gate.io is an American cryptocurrency exchange that launched 2017. As the exchange is American, US-investors can of course trade here and we recommend US traders to sign up on this exchange. The exchange is available both in English and Chinese (the latter being very helpful for Chinese investors). Gate.io’s main selling factor is their wide selection of trading pairs. You can find most of the new altcoins here. Gate.io also demonstrates an impressive trading volume. It is almost every day one of the top 20 exchanges with the highest trading volume. The trading volume amounts to approx. USD 100 million on a daily basis. The top 10 trading pairs on Gate.io in terms of trading volume usually have USDT (Tether) as one part of the pair. So, to summarize the foregoing, Gate.io’s vast number of trading pairs and its extraordinary liquidity are both very impressive aspects of this exchange.

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After going through a similar process as we've done before with UpHold, you will be advised to set up 2FA authentication as well, finish it as it adds extra security to your account.

Step 4: Deposit USDT to exchange

ASTO

Depends on the policies of the exchange you might be required to go through another KYC process, this should usually take you from 30 minutes to possibly a few days maximum. Though the process should be straight-forward and easy to follow. Once you're done with it you should have full access to your exchange wallet.

ASTO

If this is your first time making a crypto deposit, the screen here may look a bit scary. But don't worry, it's basically simpler than making a bank transfer. At the box on the right, you will see a string of random numbers saying 'USDT address', this is a unique public address of your USDT wallet at Gate.io and you can receive USDT by giving this address to the person to send you the funds. Since we are now transferring our previously bought USDT on UpHold to this wallet, click on 'Copy Address' or right-click on the full address and click copy to grab this address to your clipboard.

Now head back to UpHold, go to the Transact screen and click on USDT on the "From" field, choose the amount you wan to send and on the "To" field choose USDT under "Crypto Network", then click "Preview withdraw".

On the next screen, paste the wallet address from your clipboard, for security consideration you should always check if both addresses are matching. It is known that there are certain computer malware that would alter the content in your clipboard into another wallet address and you will be essentially sending funds to another person.

After reviewing, click 'Confirm' to proceed, you should receive a confirmation email instantly, click on the confirmation link in the email and your coins are on the way to Gate.io!

ASTO

Now go back to Gate.io and head to your exchange wallets, don't worry if you haven't seen your deposit here. It is probably still being verified in the blockchain network and it should take a few minutes for your coins to arrive. Depending on the network traffic condition of the USDT network, during busy times it may take even longer.

You should receive a confirmation notification from Gate.io once your USDT has arrived. And you are now finally ready to purchase ASTO!

Step 5: Trade ASTO

ASTO

Go back to Gate.io, then go to 'Exchange'. Boom! What a view! The constantly flicking figures might be a bit scary, but relax, let's get our heads around this.

ASTO

In the right column there is a search bar, now make sure "USDT" is selected as we are trading USDT to altcoin pair. Click on it and type in "ASTO", you should see ASTO/USDT, select that pair and you should see a price chart of ASTO/USDT in the middle of the page.

Below there is a box with a green button that says "Buy ASTO", inside of the box, choose the "Market" tab here as that is the most straight-forward type of buying orders. You can either type in your amount or choose what portion of your USDT deposit you would like to spend on buying, by clicking on the percentage buttons. When you have confirmed everything, click "Buy ASTO". Voila! You have finally bought ASTO!

Last Step: Store ASTO securely in hardware wallets

Ledger Nano S

Ledger Nano S

  • Easy to set up and friendly interface
  • Can be used on desktops and laptops
  • Lightweight and Portable
  • Support most blockchains and wide range of (ERC-20/BEP-20) tokens
  • Multiple languages available
  • Built by a well-established company found in 2014 with great chip security
  • Affordable price
Ledger Nano X

Ledger Nano X

  • More powerful secure element chip (ST33) than Ledger Nano S
  • Can be used on desktop or laptop, or even smartphone and tablet through Bluetooth integration
  • Lightweight and Portable with built-in rechargeable battery
  • Larger screen
  • More storage space than Ledger Nano S
  • Support most blockchains and wide range of (ERC-20/BEP-20) tokens
  • Multiple languages available
  • Built by a well-established company found in 2014 with great chip security
  • Affordable price

If you are planning to keep("hodl" as some may say, basically misspelt "hold" which get popularised over time) your ASTO for a considerable long time, you may want to explore ways of keeping it safe, although Binance is one of the safest cryptocurrency exchange there had been hacking incidents and funds were lost. Because of the very nature of the wallets in exchanges, they will be always online("Hot Wallets" as we call them), therefore exposing certain aspects of vulnerabilities. The safest way of storing your coins to date is always putting them into a type of "Cold Wallets", where the wallet will only have access to the blockchain(or simply "go online") when you send out funds, reducing the chances of hacking incidents. A paper wallet is a type of free cold wallet, it's basically an offline-generated pair of public and private address and you will have it written somewhere, and keep it safe. However, it is not durable and is susceptible to various hazards.

Hardware wallet here is definitely a better option of cold wallets. They are usually USB-enabled devices that store the key information of your wallet in a more durable way. They are built with military-level security and their firmware are constantly maintained by their manufacturers and thus extremely safe. Ledger Nano S and Ledger Nano X and are the most popular options in this category, these wallets cost around $50 to $100 depending on the features they are offering. If you are holding your assets these wallets are a good investment in our opinion.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I buy ASTO with cash?

There is no direct way to buy ASTO with cash. However, you can use marketplaces such as LocalBitcoins to first purchase USDT, and finish the rest of the steps by transferring your USDT to respective AltCoin exchanges.

LocalBitcoins is a peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange. It is a marketplace where users can buy and sell Bitcoins to and from each other. Users, called traders, create advertisements with the price and the payment method they want to offer. You can choose to buy from sellers from a certain nearby region on the platform. is after all a good place to go to buy Bitcoins when you can't find your desired payment methods anywhere else. But prices are usually higher on this platform and you have to do your due diligence to avoid getting scammed.

Are there any quick ways to buy ASTO in Europe?

Yes, in fact, Europe is one of the easiest places to buy cryptos in general. There are even online banks which you can simply open an account and transfer money to exchanges such as Coinbase and Uphold.

Are there any alternative platforms to buy ASTO or Bitcoin with credit cards?

Yes. is also a very easy to use platform for buying Bitcoin with credit cards. It is an instant cryptocurrency exchange that allows you to exchange crypto fast and buy it with a bank card. Its user interface is very easy to use and the buying steps are pretty self-explanatory.

Read more on Altered State Token's fundamentals and current price here.

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