Hyperliquid and pump.fun lead $640M crypto token buyback surge

Crypto protocols have spent roughly $638 million buying back their own tokens so far in 2026, according to blockchain analytics firm Allium Labs. That figure already exceeds the $545 million recorded during the same period last year, and it dwarfs the $366,000 spent across all of 2024.

Two platforms are responsible for the vast majority of that spending: Hyperliquid and pump.fun, which together account for nearly 90% of total buyback volume.

How a perpetuals exchange became the poster child for buybacks

Hyperliquid launched in late 2024 as a decentralized perpetuals exchange, and it wired buybacks directly into its revenue model from day one. The protocol routes approximately 99% of its trading fees into what it calls an Assistance Fund, which continuously buys and burns its native HYPE token on the open market.

Hyperliquid’s total buybacks have exceeded $1.1 billion since launch, with some estimates putting the figure closer to $1.3 billion. For context, the entire crypto industry spent less than $400,000 on buybacks in 2024.

HYPE has reportedly surged around 70% over the relevant period, with analysts pointing to the buyback model’s consistency as a key driver of sustained demand.

Pump.fun’s slower, messier conversion

Pump.fun, the Solana-based memecoin launchpad, arrived at buybacks through a different path. The platform had already conducted a significant token burn before pivoting in April 2026 to allocate 50% of its net revenue toward ongoing open-market repurchases of its PUMP token.

The cumulative buyback figures for pump.fun range from approximately $138 million recorded in 2025 to over $400 million by mid-2026. Recent introductions, including a feature called BOOST mode, have stabilized revenue to some degree.

A Wall Street strategy finding its crypto footing

Token buybacks follow the same supply-compression logic as corporate share buybacks. Protocols earn revenue, use it to buy tokens from the open market, and either hold or burn those tokens to permanently reduce circulating supply. The difference from equity markets is that crypto protocols can hardcode this behavior into smart contracts, making it automatic rather than discretionary.

Sky Protocol, the DeFi lending platform formerly known as MakerDAO, has also participated in the trend, executing $26 million in SKY buybacks as part of the broader industry wave Allium Labs has tracked.

Allium Labs’ data points to a regulatory tailwind as well. As the US regulatory environment has grown more accommodating of crypto products and structures in 2025 and 2026, protocols have more confidence deploying treasury resources in ways that might have drawn scrutiny under prior enforcement frameworks.

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