Cryptocurrency token buybacks hit a new high of $638 million, but what was the effect?

Crypto projects are betting that repurchase will improve token performance, but the results are mixed

As of August, according to Allium Labs data and the Financial Times, projects spent approximately US$638 million on repurchase of their own tokens this year. This figure is higher than US$545 million in the same period in 2025 and far exceeds approximately US$366,000 for the whole of 2024.

While the projects running the largest repurchase programs-Hyperliquid (HYPE) and Pump.fun (PUMP)-have performed well, other projects are struggling to break through bottlenecks. Repurchase expenditures are highly uneven. Perpetual contract exchange Hyperliquid and Solana's memin launch platform Pump.fun accounted for approximately US$370 million and US$200 million respectively. Together, the two accounted for 90% of the total repurchase volume this year.

According to Novora Research, in its sample, tokens using the "repurchase and destruction" mechanism fell by an average of 35% throughout the year. If Hyperliquid data is excluded, this decline expands to 56%.

At the same time, although Uniswap (UNI) and Jupiter (JUP) invested millions of dollars in repurchases, the gains were relatively small. Both have increased by about 20% this year, while PUMP has increased by 123%, and HYPE has increased by about 240%. However, according to CoinMarketCap data, these four tokens still outperformed Bitcoin (BTC), which fell 10.6% over the same period.

Orest Gavryliak, chief legal officer of 1inch, said: "If the repurchase is stopped, will the reasons for holding the token still exist? If the answer is no, then the problem is deeper than token economics itself."

Early explosive growth

A series of high-profile repurchase plans in early 2025 initially triggered a breakthrough in prices. In January 2025, decentralized exchange Jupiter announced that it would use half of the agreement fee to purchase JUP while destroying 3 billion tokens worth US$3.6 billion. JUP prices rose by about 40% in one day.

Other projects followed suit. Sky (SKY) began buying back its tokens in February. In March, dYdX (DYDX) committed to spending a quarter of the net agreement fee on repurchase. In April, Aave DAO approved a $1 million weekly AAVE repurchase program.

At the end of the year, a total of 28 projects had spent US$1.4 billion on buybacks. Among them, Hyperliquid accounted for nearly 46% of the total because its "aid fund" automatically converts almost all transaction fees to HYPE.

Novora research found that among 50 agreements with clear revenue data, the highest revenue fifth had an average return of 8%, while the lowest revenue fifth had an average loss of 81%.

Repurals usually use agreement revenue or treasury funds to purchase the project's own tokens. Some plans are discretionary and can be stopped at any time; others rely on regular token holder votes.

Marc Zeller, founder of the Aave Chan Initiative, wrote in 2025:"Repurchase is eternal. What the DAO voted was only the execution rate for the next six months."

Failed to fully meet expectations

From a broader performance perspective, the record is not strong. Analysis by researcher Bill Hsu shows that of the 10 largest tokens repurchased in 2025, only three-AAVE, HYPE and SKY-outperformed Bitcoin during their repurchase window.

Messari analyst Sunny Shi wrote: "Our analysis found no evidence that the market is significantly rewarding these moves. Token performance is still driven by indicator growth and narrative construction."

Novora Research rated the performance of 159 agreements across six value capture models and found an average return of-35%for the "buy-back and destroy" program. After excluding Hyperliquid, this figure dropped to-56%. "Revenue size rather than mechanism design is the key to driving returns," the company concluded.

The best performing projects

Hyperliquid and Pump.fun are the biggest winners in current repurchase success cases. Their performance seems to reflect credible commitments backed by huge revenue streams.

The operations of these two projects are largely automated. Hyperliquid routes approximately 97% of transaction fees to HYPE purchases through its aid fund. Pump.fun will lock in half of its net income for a one-year automatic PUMP repurchase and destruction.

Keyrock ratings show that discretionary plans score the highest for execution efficiency but have lower transparency, while fixed-income share repurchases provide greater transparency but are less efficient in timing.

In addition, these two projects are also the businesses with the largest revenue among repurchase projects. When Pump.fun announced its first one-week fee milestone of $10 million in August, PUMP prices rose 33.8%.

Hsu believes that the strongest results combine buybacks, flat or falling supply, and improved business fundamentals. "Policy credibility comes from rules and duplication," he wrote.

What should holders pay attention to

The repurchase wave will not fade in the short term. Keyrock said the number of agreements running meaningful repurchase programs could double this year. The company also expects the design to shift from fixed fee percentages to dynamic frameworks and what it calls "more disciplined accumulation." This trend is already beginning to appear. Aave took action in July to implement an automated system that routes protocol revenue to AAVE. Hyperliquid's reserve income plan will make its first payment on October 3.

The more severe test will be how these plans will perform during prolonged periods of revenue downturn. For example, Hyperliquid's fee revenue has declined every quarter since peaking in the third quarter of 2025. Its quarterly repurchase volume also fell, from nearly $290 million to approximately $149 million in the second quarter of 2026.

"Repurchase does not make unsustainable agreements sustainable," said Sam MacPherson, co-founder and CEO of Spark.