Since the beginning of 2026, crypto projects have spent a record $638 million on buybacks of their own tokens. Hyperliquid and Pump.fun accounted for nearly 90% of the total volume, according to Financial Times, citing data from Allium Labs.
The data covers the period up to August 25. For comparison, the buyback volume for the same months in 2025 was $545 million, and in 2024, it was just $366,000.
Hyperliquid accounted for about $370 million, or 58% of the total. The protocol’s built-in Assistance Fund automatically directs trading fees to purchase HYPE. According to the platform’s documentation, the acquired tokens are burned, permanently reducing the total and circulating supply.
Pump.fun contributed nearly $200 million, or about 31% of the total volume. Until the end of April, the platform directed all revenue to purchase PUMP for about nine months.
On April 28, the team changed the mechanism: now approximately 50% of the revenue is programmatically reserved for buybacks and token burns throughout the year. The remaining half is allocated for business development.
Simultaneously, Pump.fun burned all PUMP tokens purchased under the previous program. Their value at that time was estimated at approximately $370 million, corresponding to about 36% of the circulating supply.
This amount cannot be directly compared to the nearly $200 million from Allium’s 2026 data: the April burn included tokens that Pump.fun repurchased over about nine months, including the 2025 period.
Additionally, Financial Times cites aggregated data from Allium Labs. It is unclear whether only open market token purchases were considered or if separate operations involving burns and treasury reserves were also included.
Elton Shehdula, head of research at Allium Labs, noted that buybacks can reduce the circulating supply and create additional demand, but they do not guarantee an increase in token value.
Financial Times mentions Chainlink and Jupiter as examples of projects whose tokens have depreciated despite their own buyback programs.
On August 13, Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan noted that outside of Bitcoin, investors are increasingly looking at protocol revenue, with some projects already returning income to token holders through buybacks and burns.
