Here is the translated English version based on your instructions: 盘点8大熊市“现金牛”项目：最多者年内回购2.83亿美元

Original｜Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author｜Wenser (@wenser2010)

As global stock markets undergo a phase of adjustment, the crypto bear market continues. Amidst the bleak market conditions, some crypto projects are still demonstrating strong cash generation capabilities.

According to Tokenomist Statistics, since January this year, the token buyback scale of eight crypto projects, including Hyperliquid, Meteora, and Pump.fun, has far exceeded their supply growth. Among them, HYPE's buyback scale reached as high as $283 million, accounting for 3% of its supply. Under the same market conditions, the survival situations of crypto projects are starkly different. Odaily Planet Daily will briefly review these eight "cash cow" projects that continue to generate cash flow, providing readers with insight into the true "buyback kings" of the current crypto market.

The "Eight Major Cash Generators" of the Bear Market: Perp DEX, DeFi, and Memecoin Launchpad Make the List

According to Tokenomist data, as of June 30, the eight projects with token buyback scales exceeding their circulating supply growth this year are as follows:

• 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% ($283 million value); Supply growth -11%;
• LIT: Buyback ratio 1%; Supply growth 0%;
• AAVE: Buyback ratio 1%; Supply growth +1%.

Among these, Meteora's (MET) buyback had the greatest impact on its token's circulating supply. Its supply only increased by 13%, currently standing at approximately 535.4 million tokens, while the buyback scale reached 71% of January's token supply, totaling 336.2 million tokens. Meanwhile, Hyperliquid (HYPE) had the largest buyback capital scale, amounting to $283 million, equivalent to 3% of its token supply, while its token supply decreased by 11% over the same period. Details are as follows.

Hyperliquid: Year-to-Date Buyback Capital Reaches $283 Million

According to CryptoBriefing Statistics, since the beginning of 2026, Hyperliquid's token buyback amount has reached $283 million, setting a record for the largest token buyback capital in the industry. As of July 3, the cumulative token 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 would be directly used to purchase and burn HYPE tokens. By October last year, the HYPE token buyback capital had reached $645 million. On a quarterly basis, the buyback scale shows a gradual increasing trend: $316.76 million in Q3 2025; $255.05 million in Q4 2025; $192.25 million in Q1 2026. Previously, the average monthly buyback capital was between $65 million and $85 million.

Currently, the Hyperliquid platform has bought back and burned 44 million HYPE tokens through this mechanism, accounting for approximately 4.4% of the total supply.

Currently, the HYPE token price is temporarily around $70. Additionally, according to DefiLlama Data, as of July 5, the Hyperliquid platform's cumulative fees were approximately $1.412 billion, with a total TVL of around $5.854 billion; annual fees were approximately $1.072 billion.

Pump.fun: Year-to-Date Buyback Exceeds $71 Million in PUMP Tokens

In March 2024, the Meme craze ignited from the Solana ecosystem swept the entire crypto market, and Pump.fun quickly became the hottest Meme coin launchpad at the time. Although the Meme coin craze subsequently cooled down, Pump.fun has remained active in the crypto market, solidifying its position as a cash cow project through mechanisms like token launches, product updates, and creator revenue sharing.

Data shows that Pump.fun has cumulatively bought back over $400 million worth of PUMP tokens, covering approximately 145.5 billion PUMP tokens. The buyback program was initiated in July 2025 and has been ongoing for a cumulative 346 days.

Since April this year, Pump.fun has been using 50% of its net income for token buybacks and burns, with the remaining income allocated to 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 over the past 30 days dropping to about $18.66 million.

Currently, the PUMP token price is temporarily around $0.0016.

Lighter: Year-to-Date Buyback Exceeds 15 Million LIT Tokens

As another on-chain Perp DEX platform following Hyperliquid, Lighter's answer lies in a combination of "compliance and buybacks."

Recently, Lighter founder and CEO Vladimir Novakovski announced his joining the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Innovation Advisory Committee as a committee member. Previously, Lighter officially announced integration with Robinhood Wallet, allowing users to trade perpetual contracts directly through the wallet. Combined with the positive news of token buybacks, the LIT token price has also seen a significant increase recently.

According to Lighter's official announcement on July 1, since starting the first token buyback in January this year, it has completed the buyback and burn of approximately 15.5 million LIT tokens, accounting for 6.3% of the total circulating supply.

According to DefiLlama Data, Lighter's cumulative fee revenue is approximately $68 million, with a TVL of about $507 million; protocol revenue over the past 30 days was approximately $2.38 million.

Currently, the LIT token price is temporarily around $2.59.

Aave: Year-to-Date Buyback Capital Exceeds $13.7 Million

On April 9, 2025, Aave's buyback proposal was passed with an overwhelming 99.63% approval rate. According to the proposal, Aave would repurchase $1 million worth of tokens weekly for the following six months, with the first buyback executed on April 10.

By July last year, the protocol had spent a cumulative $10 million to repurchase 50,000 AAVE tokens, with an average cost price of $199.74. At the then-market price of $264, this treasury reserve had generated approximately $3 million in unrealized gains. (Supplementary Reading: 《Aave Economic Model Overhaul: Anti-GHO Mechanism + Token Buyback Propels AAVE Up 20% 》）

This year, following the significant security incident involving KelpDAO, which saw over $290 million affected, Aave faced a "DeFi trust crisis" due to bad debt issues. Within less than a week, capital outflows exceeded $17 billion (in TVL), and it once faced a potential bank run risk on nearly $8.5 billion in deposits. Subsequently, through capital injections by its founder and fundraising via the DeFi United campaign, Aave successfully navigated the crisis. However, the AAVE token and the platform's TVL were inevitably and severely impacted.

It's worth noting that in October last year, Aave's repurchased AAVE token count had already exceeded 100,000, with a total cost of approximately $24 million. In March this year, Aave initiated and eventually passed a proposal to reduce the annual buyback budget from $50 million to $30 million. Currently, Aave has repurchased 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, and emphasizing that "AAVE will never be sold at a 30% discount."

According to DefiLlama Data, as of July 6, the Aave protocol has accumulated $2.218 billion in fees; its TVL is temporarily reported at $13.4 billion.

Currently, the AAVE token price is temporarily around $89.

Meteora: Year-to-Date Cumulative Buyback Capital Exceeds $45 Million

In December last year, Meteora officially stated that it had deployed 10 million USDC for buybacks in Q4 2025, cumulatively recovering approximately 2.3% of MET tokens. The same buyback address will continue to execute autonomous buybacks in the future.

According to Tokenomist Data, the circulating supply of MET tokens increased from 472.8 million on January 1, 2026, to 535.4 million (out of a total supply of 1 billion), marking a 13.2% increase. Over the same period, Meteora officially bought back 336.2 million tokens, valued at $45.75 million, representing 71% of its token supply at the beginning of the year.

In February this year, Meteora was embroiled in controversy after on-chain detective ZachXBT exposed insider trading by employees. However, relying heavily on its deep integration with the Solana ecosystem and the Jupiter ecosystem, it managed to weather the storm and remains active in the crypto market. Recently, its second-quarter LP incentive campaign just concluded, with related rewards to be distributed subsequently.

According to DefiLlama Data, its cumulative trading volume is approximately $322.2 billion; TVL is temporarily reported at $320 million; its protocol revenue over the past 30 days was $1.92 million.

Currently, the MET token price is temporarily around $0.17.

GMX: Year-to-Date Buyback Capital Reaches $14.88 Million

As early as July 2024, GMX initiated a proposal to buy back and distribute GMX tokens. In November last year, GMX proposed increasing the fee coverage for buybacks and distribution from 27% to 90% and raising the allocation ratio for the GMX Treasury to 73% to support token buybacks and airdrop mechanisms. This was expected to increase the monthly buyback quantity of GMX tokens to 345,534, valued at $8.489 million.

By October 23 last year, the GMX buyback quantity was approximately 1.33 million tokens. Subsequently, GMX continued to buy back tokens. In March this year, through a governance plan, the GMX DAO adjusted buybacks and liquidity to restore price discovery.

According to an announcement released by GMX on July 1, between March 5 and June 30 this year, it spent $1.965 million to buy back 313,650 GMX tokens at an average price of $6.27, with Q2 buyback capital totaling $1.41 million. According to Tokenomist Data, the current GMX buyback ratio is approximately 41.22%.

According to DefiLlama Data, GMX's cumulative trading volume is close to $330 billion; TVL is temporarily reported at $175 million; protocol revenue over the past 30 days was approximately $662,000.

Currently, the GMX token price is temporarily around $