Crypto Buybacks Surge: Hyperliquid and Pump.fun Dominate Record $638M Repurchase Spend

Crypto projects have repurchased nearly $638 million in tokens so far this year, with decentralized exchange Hyperliquid and memecoin launchpad Pump.fun accounting for almost 90% of those buybacks. According to Allium Labs data cited by the Financial Times, this is a significant increase from last year's $545 million and a tiny fraction of the $366,000 spent in 2024. Hyperliquid alone has bought back around $370 million worth of its token HYPE, while Pump.fun's PUMP token has seen nearly $200 million in buybacks.

Token buybacks are similar to share buybacks by publicly listed companies, which aim to support their stock prices and increase returns for existing shareholders. While still rare in the crypto industry, more projects are taking advantage of this strategy. The Ethena Foundation recently opened a vote on a fee-switch proposal that would allocate 95% of its net revenue toward repurchasing ENA tokens.

As token valuations rise due to buybacks and burns, some experts predict that the crypto market could double in value over the next two years. Hyperliquid spends around 99% of its revenue on HYPE buybacks, while Pump.fun allocates about 50% of its net protocol revenue toward PUMP repurchases.