Data shows that as of August 31, crypto projects have repurchased approximately $638 million in native tokens this year, which is higher than the $545 million in the same period last year. Compared to just $366,000 in 2024, such repurchase arrangements supported by protocol revenue have significantly increased over the past two years.
Hyperliquid and Pump.fun account for nearly 90%
The UK's Financial Times, citing data from Allium Labs, reported that Hyperliquid and Pump.fun together account for nearly 90% of the repurchase volume in this year's tracked samples. This also means that the growth in repurchases is mainly driven by a few leading projects and does not represent that such mechanisms have been widely adopted across the entire crypto market.
Among them, Hyperliquid is currently the largest revenue-driven buyback project. According to the protocol documents, the platform allocates 99% of the transaction fees that meet the conditions to Assistance Fund for the automatic purchase of HYPE, and the purchased tokens are permanently destroyed.
According to reports, since its launch in December 2024, Hyperliquid has accumulated purchases and cancellations of approximately $1.3 billion in HYPE. However, this cumulative figure is different from the annual statistic of $638 million for the year 2026 and cannot be directly added together.
Destruction and unlocking exist simultaneously.
Pump.fun uses its own token issuance platform, PumpSwap exchanges, and other trading products to repurchase PUMP. The current mechanism allocates 50% of the specified income for repurchase and destruction, with execution dependent on a locked smart contract.
As of the week of August 9th, Pump.fun spent approximately $5.02 million to buy and destroy 2.15 billion PUMP. According to reports, its cumulative repurchases have offset about 15.7% of the initial supply.
However, repurchases do not necessarily mean that the pressure on circulation will decrease. In July, Pump.fun released approximately $86.49 million worth of PUMP to 121 teams and investor wallets. Repurchases reduce the supply, while unlocks increase the number of tradable tokens; the two actions are in opposite directions.
The conditions for Sky and Lido are different.
The annual data for Allium also shows that Sky Protocol repurchased approximately $26 million worth of SKY in 2026. Its on-chain Smart Burn Engine will use protocol surpluses to buy SKY in the public market. In March of this year, Sky also slowed down its repurchase pace, including reducing the size of each purchase and extending the interval between transactions.
The NEST proposal of Lido sets even stricter conditions. The plan proposes that LDO repurchases will only be initiated when the annual income exceeds 40 million US dollars; 50% of the amount exceeding the baseline can be used to purchase LDO. At the same time, the plan sets a daily limit of 50,000 US dollars and a rolling 12-month limit of 10 million US dollars.
Repurchase alone is not sufficient to support prices.
The report mentions that the impact of buybacks on prices depends on multiple factors, including whether the tokens are permanently destroyed, whether they remain in the treasury, whether the protocol's revenue continues, and whether there is any new token issuance.
From the results, it can be seen that different projects perform inconsistently. While Hyperliquid has seen revenue growth, HYPE has exhibited stronger price performance; however, there are also projects whose token prices remain under pressure despite continuous repurchases. For the market, repurchases seem to serve more as a tool for income distribution rather than a factor that independently determines price trends.
