Cash Flow Showdown in a Bear Market: Spotlight on 8 Crypto Projects with Buybacks
Original Title: "Review of 8 Major Bear Market 'Cash Cow' Projects: The Highest Buyback Reaches $283 Million This Year"
Original Author: Wenser, Odaily Planet Daily
As global stock markets undergo a phase of adjustment, the crypto bear market continues unabated. Amidst a bleak market, some crypto projects still demonstrate strong capital-raising capabilities.
According to Tokenomist, since January this year, eight crypto projects, including Hyperliquid, Meteora, and Pump.fun, have seen their token buyback volumes far exceed the increase in supply, with HYPE's buyback reaching as high as $283 million, accounting for 3% of its supply. Despite the same market environment, the survival conditions for crypto projects vary significantly. Odaily Planet Daily provides a brief overview of these eight 'cash cow' projects that continue to generate cash flow, offering readers insights into the true 'buyback kings' of the current crypto market.
The Eight Cash Cows of the Bear Market: Perp DEX, DeFi, and Memecoin Launchpads on the List
According to Tokenomist data, as of June 30, the eight projects with token buybacks exceeding the growth of circulating supply this year are:
· MET: Buyback ratio 71%; Supply growth +13%;
· PUMP: Buyback ratio 7%; Supply growth -24%;
· GMX: Buyback ratio 21%; Supply growth +1%;
· RLB: Buyback ratio 10%; Supply growth -8%;
· MPLX: Buyback ratio 8%; Supply growth -8%;
· HYPE: Buyback ratio 3% (valued at $283 million); Supply growth -11%;
· LIT: Buyback ratio 1%; Supply growth 0%;
· AAVE: Buyback ratio 1%; Supply growth +1%.
Among them, Meteora (MET) has the most significant impact on the circulating supply, with its supply only increasing by 13%, currently reported at 535.4 million tokens, while the buyback volume reached 71% of the January token supply, totaling 336.2 million tokens. Meanwhile, Hyperliquid (HYPE) has the largest buyback fund, amounting to $283 million, equivalent to 3% of its token supply, while its token supply has decreased by 11% during the same period. Below are detailed introductions.
Hyperliquid: Buyback Fund Reaches $283 Million This Year
According to CryptoBriefing, since early 2026, Hyperliquid's token buyback amount has reached $283 million, setting a record for the largest token buyback fund in the industry. As of July 3, the cumulative buyback amount has exceeded $1.1 billion.
On March 20 last year, Hyperliquid officially launched its token buyback mechanism, stating that 97-99% of Hyperliquid's trading fees are directly used to purchase and burn HYPE tokens. By October last year, the buyback fund for HYPE tokens had reached $645 million. From a quarterly perspective, the buyback volume shows a gradual increase: Q3 2025 was $316.76 million; Q4 2025 was $255.05 million; Q1 2026 was $192.25 million. Previously, the average monthly buyback fund ranged between $65 million and $85 million.
Currently, Hyperliquid has destroyed 44 million HYPE tokens through buybacks, accounting for approximately 4.4% of the total supply.
Currently, the price of HYPE tokens is around $70. Additionally, according to DefiLlama data, as of July 5, Hyperliquid's cumulative fees are approximately $1.412 billion, with a total TVL of about $5.854 billion; annual fees are approximately $1.072 billion.
Pump.fun: Over $71 Million in PUMP Token Buybacks This Year
In March 2024, the Meme craze ignited by the Solana ecosystem swept the entire crypto market, and Pump.fun quickly became the hottest Meme coin launch platform at that time. Although the Meme coin craze later cooled down, Pump.fun has remained active in the crypto market, ranking among the cash cow projects through token launches, product updates, and creator revenue sharing mechanisms.
Data shows that Pump.fun has cumulatively repurchased over $400 million worth of PUMP tokens, covering approximately 145.5 billion PUMP tokens, with the buyback plan launched in July 2025, continuing for a total of 346 days.
Since April this year, Pump.fun has begun using 50% of its net income for token buybacks and burns, with the remaining income allocated for operations, recruitment, and acquisitions.
DefiLlama data shows that since its launch in January 2024, the platform has generated approximately $1.13 billion in fees and $1.05 billion in revenue, with fees in the last 30 days dropping to about $18.66 million.
Currently, the price of PUMP tokens is around $0.0016.
Lighter: Over 1,500 LIT Tokens Bought Back This Year
As another on-chain Perp DEX platform following Hyperliquid, Lighter's answer is a combination of "compliance + buyback".
Recently, Lighter's founder and CEO Vladimir Novakovski announced that he has joined the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Innovation Advisory Committee as a committee member; previously, Lighter announced its integration with Robinhood Wallet, allowing users to conduct perpetual contract trading directly through the wallet. Coupled with the favorable buyback news, the price of LIT tokens has also seen a good increase recently.
According to an announcement from Lighter on July 1, since the first token buyback began in January this year, approximately 15.5 million LIT tokens have been bought back and destroyed, accounting for 6.3% of the total circulating supply.
According to DefiLlama data, Lighter's cumulative fee income is approximately $68 million, with a TVL of about $507 million; the protocol's income in the past 30 days is approximately $2.38 million.
Currently, the price of LIT tokens is around $2.59.
Aave: Buyback Funds Exceed $13.7 Million This Year
On April 9, 2025, Aave's buyback proposal was passed with an overwhelming support rate of 99.63%. According to the proposal, Aave will repurchase $1 million worth of tokens weekly for the next six months, with the first buyback starting on April 10.
As of July last year, the protocol had spent a cumulative $10 million to buy back 50,000 AAVE tokens, with an average cost of $199.74. Based on the market price of $264 at that time, this portion of treasury reserves had generated approximately $3 million in unrealized gains.
This year, after experiencing a massive security incident with KelpDAO exceeding $290 million, Aave faced a "DeFi trust crisis" due to bad debt issues, with outflows reaching over $17 billion (TVL) in less than a week, and it faced a risk of nearly $8.5 billion in deposit runs. Subsequently, through founder injections and fundraising from DeFi United activities, Aave successfully weathered the crisis, but the AAVE token and platform TVL were inevitably severely impacted.
Notably, in October last year, Aave's buyback of AAVE tokens exceeded 100,000 tokens, with a total cost of approximately $24 million; in March this year, Aave initiated a proposal to reduce the annual buyback budget from $50 million to $30 million, which was ultimately passed. Currently, Aave has bought back over 200,000 AAVE tokens. At the end of last month, Aave CEO Stani stated that the team is designing Aavenomics 3.0, planning to introduce a new automated, non-discretionary buyback mechanism, emphasizing that "AAVE will never be sold at a 30% discount."
According to DefiLlama data, as of July 6, Aave's cumulative fees reached $2.218 billion; the TVL is currently reported at $13.4 billion.
Currently, the price of AAVE tokens is around $89.
Meteora: Cumulative Buyback Funds Exceed $45 Million This Year
In December last year, Meteora officially announced that it would invest 10 million USDC for buybacks in Q4 2025, with approximately 2.3% of MET recovered, and the total amount will be continuously executed by the same buyback address.
According to Tokenomist data, the circulating supply of MET tokens increased from 472.8 million on January 1, 2026, to 535.4 million (total supply of 1 billion), an increase of 13.2%; meanwhile, Meteora officially bought back 336.2 million tokens, valued at $45.75 million, accounting for 71% of its initial token supply.
In February this year, Meteora faced turmoil due to insider trading exposed by on-chain detective ZachXBT, but ultimately managed to navigate the crisis thanks to its strong ties within the Solana ecosystem and with Jupiter. Recently, its second-quarter LP incentive activity has just concluded, with relevant rewards to be distributed later.
According to DefiLlama data, its cumulative trading volume is approximately $322.2 billion; the TVL is currently reported at $32 million; its protocol income in the past 30 days is $1.92 million.
Currently, the price of MET tokens is around $0.17.
GMX: Buyback Funds Reach $14.88 Million This Year
As early as July 2024, GMX initiated a proposal to start buying back GMX tokens and distributing GMX tokens; in November last year, GMX proposed to increase the coverage of buyback and distribution costs from 27% to 90%, and to raise the allocation ratio of GMX Treasury to 73% to support the buyback and airdrop mechanism, expecting the monthly buyback of GMX to increase to 345,534 tokens, with a buyback value of $8.489 million.
As of October 23 last year, GMX had bought back approximately 1.33 million tokens; subsequently, GMX continued to buy back tokens. In March this year, GMX DAO adjusted the buyback and liquidity through governance plans to restore price discovery.
According to GMX's official announcement on July 1, from March 5 to June 30 this year, a total of $1.965 million was spent to buy back 313,650 GMX tokens at an average price of $6.27, with Q2 buyback funds amounting to $1.41 million. According to Tokenomist data, GMX's buyback volume currently accounts for approximately 41.22%.
According to DefiLlama data, GMX's cumulative trading volume is close to $330 billion; the TVL is currently reported at $175 million; the protocol's income in the last 30 days is approximately $662,000.
Currently, the price of GMX tokens is around $5.86.
In addition to the above platforms, the online gambling platform Rollbit, which focuses on the 'GambleFi' concept, and the asset issuance platform Metaplex in the Solana ecosystem have more niche token buyback mechanisms.
The former's RLB token executes automatic buybacks and burns every hour, primarily using platform revenue (10% from casinos, 20% from sports betting, 30% from 1000x futures, etc.) to purchase RLB on the open market. After purchase, 90% is permanently burned (reducing supply), and 10% is allocated to Rollbots NFT stakers (incentivizing holders). According to official information, the cumulative token buyback value in the past six months is approximately $12.5 million.
Currently, the price of RLB tokens is around $0.065.
The latter uses 50% of protocol fees each month to buy back MPLX, with the repurchased tokens allocated to the Metaplex DAO treasury (held rather than immediately burned, enhancing scarcity and governance value); the remaining 50% is used for foundation development. Currently, the price of MPLX tokens is around $0.036.
Of course, token buybacks and burns do not necessarily mean price increases, as they are also influenced by market conditions, news events, product updates, token unlocks, and other factors. However, in the current sluggish market, crypto projects that can consistently generate stable cash flow are already rare 'money-making machines.'
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