Crypto projects have spent approximately $640 million on token buybacks so far in 2026, a 17 percent increase from the same period in 2025 and a jump from the $366,000 spent in 2024.
Hyperliquid and Pump.fun dominate the trend, together accounting for almost 90 percent of current buyback expenditure. The practice involves protocols using generated revenue to repurchase their native tokens, often followed by burning them. Buybacks create demand for a token on the open market. When combined with token burns, which reduce overall supply, this dynamic exerts upward price pressure.
"Buybacks and burns are an effective way to accrue value to tokenholders," said Max Shannon, senior research associate at Bitwise Europe. "These mechanisms create a continuous bid in the market, directly tethering token success to protocol activity."
This approach gives tokenholders a direct connection to the underlying protocol's economic performance. "Telling users a project has bought and burned tokens is much more straightforward than detailing governance rights or fee structures," said Orest Gavryliak, chief legal officer at decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch.
Hyperliquid, a Layer 1 blockchain for perpetual futures, has adopted one of the most aggressive strategies, using 99 percent of its revenue to buy back and burn its native HYPE token. Pump.fun allocates 50 percent of its revenue towards buybacks and burns, having removed $446.65 million worth of PUMP from circulation through this mechanism.
The widespread adoption of token buybacks reflects a maturing crypto industry. Protocols are increasingly borrowing behaviors from public companies, moving beyond the speculative narratives that characterized earlier market phases. However, every dollar spent on buybacks is capital not deployed toward hiring developers, expanding operations, strengthening the balance sheet, or building out the product.
DeFi infrastructure protocol Spark offers a variation. Co-founder and chief executive Sam MacPherson said Spark acquired over 143 million SPK tokens through open-market buybacks, funded by protocol surplus. Unlike Hyperliquid and Pump.fun, these tokens were not burned but instead remain in the Spark treasury to reward long-term participants.
