Token Buyback Boom Hits $640 Million

Crypto token buybacks have seen significant growth in 2026, reaching $640 million by early September. This is a 17% increase from the same period last year and marks a shift towards tying token value directly to revenue generation.

Two projects dominate this trend: Hyperliquid and Pump.fun account for nearly 90% of all buyback expenditure this year, with Hyperliquid directing 99% of its revenue toward repurchasing and burning HYPE tokens.

Orest Gavryliak, chief legal officer at decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch, notes that buybacks can serve one of two purposes: reducing circulating supply or demonstrating a rationale for investing in protocol revenues.

However, some experts caution against the emphasis on token buybacks. Sam MacPherson, co-founder and CEO of Spark, argues that repurchasing tokens may not be the highest-value use of a protocol's capital, and that there is an opportunity cost to consider.