$638 Million Spent on Crypto Token Buybacks, Mostly by Hyperliquid and Pump.fun

Crypto projects have spent around $638 million on token buybacks in 2026, surpassing last year's $545 million and dwarfing the mere $366,000 from 2024.

However, upon closer inspection, it appears that just two projects - Hyperliquid and Pump.fun - account for nearly 90% of this total. This concentration is a significant indicator of which tokens are worth holding onto in the next cycle.

The reason behind Hyperliquid's dominance is its unique token model, where around 99% of fees from its perpetual exchange are funneled into an Assistance Fund that buys back HYPE on the open market. This mechanical process creates fresh buying pressure with every dollar of trading volume.

Pump.fun also contributes significantly to the buyback wave, having shifted in late April to sending 50% of its net revenue into an automatic buy-and-burn program. By late August, it had bought back and burned around $442.6 million worth of PUMP tokens, trimming roughly 16.3% of the supply.

However, a catch exists - Pump.fun also handed out about $86.5 million of PUMP to team and investor wallets in July, which somewhat offsets the token's reduction in supply.